Cracking Croatian Wine: Komarna Wine Region

Located in southern Dalmatia, Komarna is Croatia's newest appellation. This scenic seaside region is dedicated to local varieties and organic farming. Join us and meet the pioneers of Komarna. It's all on the latest episode of Cracking Croatian Wine. It's a five-hour drive from Zagreb to Gradac, Croatia. This beach town in southern Dalmatia was serves our base. Getting close to our house. Wow! It looks like we'll be comfortable at the seaside Villa Lavanda. Complete with a patio. Today I'll be doing a tour of our summer house. We'll be here for a couple of weeks. We have a really nice garden with a few decks. Look at that. I love waking up in the morning. Just sitting out here having a coffee. It rarely rains in Dalmatia during the summer, but tonight we're taking in this rare storm from the front porch. Optima Rent-A-Car set us up with a nice ride to enjoy the drive from Gradac to Komarna, which is scenic. Rizmon. So Rizmon you have to take an offshoot, a little side road off the main road. I think when we came here last time it was rocky. It looks like they paved the road. Rizmon is the pioneering winery of Komarna. Established in 2006, their winery offers sweeping views of the Adriatic Sea and the entire Appalachian. Proprietor Damir Stimac greets us and takes us through a wine pairing meal in his tasting room. Mussels and pate. We've long been fans of Rizmon's poship and the latest vintage doesn't disappoint. To me it's one of the best poship. It's just really defined flavors, a lot of freshness, but yeah you've got a body that is full but not heavy and exactly like what Damir said, there's a very nice acidity on the finish. Very happy with the poship. Next up is Rizmon's barrel fermented poship named Nona. We pair it with the octopus salad. For Nona. Because I like it. We take a quick pause to visit the cellar. St Michael label is that I have two conditions. It should be from one plot of vineyard and one variety. This break is welcome because next up are the reds from Rizmon paired with some dry-aged beef. Dry-aged. Yeah it's a ribeye and the rumpsteak. Pink in the middle just like Shireen likes it. It's paired with another excellent vintage of Rizmon Typically you get this garlic like oxidative style flavor as well on Plavatsmali. Whereas this moves towards more thyme. You know it's savory herb but fresh savory herb. You have a good impression of the fruit as well. It's not dry fruit but fresh fruit. Damir tells us about Kemarna and what he sees for Rizmon. I think it's special that all new wine producers get organic production and this is the youngest wine region in Croatia. I could say that all Rizmon wines have one elegant note. We want identity of variety and also of terroir but we are new school of all all wine making. Good wines, stellar views and food pairing make this winery a can't miss. The distinctive Nuretva valley is right next to Kemarna. This oasis of water and green vegetation sticks out like a sore thumb in bone-dry Dalmatia. It's here that the Nuretva river flows down from the mountains in Bosnia to the Adriatic Sea. The delta known as Ucce Nuretva is a world-class windsurfing destination. We don't have time to indulge. Maybe next time. The next day we head to another mainstay in the Kemarna wine route, Terra Madre. This winery was established by three families who are business partners in agricultural equipment. Vedrana from one of the families meets us and shows us the cellar. Terra Madre has employed well-respected winemaker Marko Schumann. We have to make our style of Bosch. You cannot work serious wine per night. You need the time. Dragana, another member of the Terra Madre family comes to greet us. She explains the history of all three families. They are in business for 30 years. Oh, so you've always been like a family friend. The terrace offers sweeping views of the Adriatic Sea and we start to tasting. This vintage of the Poschit premium is crisp, delicious and an affordable introduction to the variety. However, we're really impressed with the new Plavac Mali premium which is the selection of the best grapes More structure. And often when it comes to Kemarna, Plavac Mali, I would expect a little bit more florality which shows in this wine. It's got a little bit of a subtle rose note and it's not bruised. Premium coming into one, two and three years old. Of course, better technology and better grapes. It has a bit of Niveolo quality to it. It has the rose, it has the sour cherry, it has the raspberry and structurally for the tannins, it fills the mouth but it's not too astringent. It's firm and young but it's not too astringent at the same time. Shireen usually does all of the cooking so I'm going to give a little break today. I'm going to cook up a few classic Dalmatian dishes. First up, we're going to cook some Pekka. First up is cleaning the fish. It's time to clean and scale the fish. So it's all about fresh seafood but we're going to put paprika, lemon, rosemary from the garden, potatoes, onions. The last local touch is a little lime from the garden as well as rosemary from the garden. So it's a little casserole roast dish. We stick in the oven. We need a big meal because our friend is coming over. Master of wine Jo Ahern produces small quantities of wine on the nearby island of Hoar using native grapes. We find her latest vintage of poship to be stunning. When I think about this, particularly this one where I talk about umaminess, it's actually like what you said, it's in the middle. It's kind of like miso soup quality, like pop in the middle. Where here the vineyard is actually is bigger and it's on slightly different terroir but also slightly different ages. So I pick earlier for higher acidity and maybe only 12% alcohol and citrusy limes and melons from the younger part of the vineyard and then the older part in the middle which has got the richest soil, it's much more of the peaches and the melons type thing. I really enjoyed it the last time when we visited but right now it really just came together in a way that it's such a complex wine. It's such an inventional wine. I'm actually super excited about it. So we're heading to Daya, I'm sorry, Dyak winery in Vinadyak. It's one of the producers that I really know very little about. I had their couple months ago and it was pretty decent so let's see. Vinadyak is a new producer and their tasting room is a roadside stop overlooking Komarna. 35 degrees celsius. I feel like a coaster. The stop offers splendid views of the Appalachian and the Adriatic Sea. We're met by one of the family members Dino Dyak. The Dyak family runs several accommodation options including a luxury villa in addition to more budget friendly apartments. The property comes complete with fresh figs. Good. I like it when it's still a little bit green. Some of the properties are near the Dyak vineyards which are located right on the Adriatic. Real seaside vineyards. Very good shape and very good condition and we hope it will be a good year. Back up at the roadside stop we sit down and taste with the family including Dino's father Damir and his sister Masha who is studying winemaking. The 2018 Poship grabs our attention once again. What I like about it is now that a lot of people are selling 2019 they are still selling 2018 which gains a lot of richness on the palate. I wouldn't say it's unctuous but you have a hazier, creamier feel to it and the nose is much more towards a tropical type. I think it tastes like a Southern Rhone White. I don't think it's as mineral as Southern Rhone but there's a richness that is quite Southern Rhone. The Dyak olive oil is also delicious and made in tiny quantities. It's spicy and bitter at the same time but so spicy that it covers up the bitterness so in a way it's balanced. Nearby is the Sveti Roko vineyard of Saints Hills. This estate is aided by superstar French winemaking consultant Michele Rolland. The winery is on nearby Pelješac peninsula but today winemaker Antonia Karg agrees to meet us in Kamarna. When we first met Antonia a few years ago she was just working in a tasting room. Now she's in charge of the production. Yeah it's crazy. She explains the difference between their two main sites for Plavac Mali, Dignac on Pelješac and Sveti Roko on Kamarna. What is the difference between the harvest date of Plavac here and the harvest date of Dignac? She harvested Dignac earlier than Kamarna so maybe 10 days before. So Dignac is a hotter climate with a different soil with the quartz and less brown soil and then Kamarna is limestone with more cooler nights more windy nights and you can preserve better acidity in the grapes. Kamarna is very young regions still and vineyards are very young so maybe with the years we can also control better the tannins. In terms of the flavor profile and taste what are the distinct differences in the Dignac and Plavac Mali from Kamarna? Yeah it's definitely first the acidity that is you can find more in Kamarna and then this we call it like a garig this Mediterranean spices on the nose less maybe more red fruits less plums like in Dignac you'll find plums and jammy notes. Back at the Villa Lavanda we run both their Plavac Malis through the taste test. So I have Sveti Roko on left, Dignac on the right. Sveti Roko is more fruit driven and also lightly floral whereas Dignac is typical Dignac so you really get a very strong anchovy smell in fact it's kind of like a savory really distinct smell but anyhow back to Dignac right it also has more of this very dry Mediterranean brushed garlic smell to it yeah correct. Roko is softer whereas Dignac has a more firm structure. Is Barolo de Barbaresco a fair comparison? Sort of. Both wines are excellent but this year's Dignac knocks our socks off. The Dignac is so good. This is young tannins but it's not really estringent and it sits so nicely on the lip palette. There's some time in the day so we soak up the sun before indulging in the beautiful Gradat sunset. The next day we meet up with friend and wine lover Martina Milecevic to visit Valerovic winery. The winery is headed up by Josip Valerovic. It's a new estate and his family got started by running a greenhouse and nursery. When I was a kid we have greenhouses and I used to hate working in the greenhouses because they were so hot and humid. Josip is working on his PhD about Plavac Mali and he explains why it's such a difficult grape. Four types of berries in one bunch of grape. You have green berries what they give you lactic acid and you have like red berries but it's not they have usually more acidity than sugar. You have perfect berry and you have reasons. Like all the sites in Comarna, the Valerovic vineyards are impressive. Even though it's late August, Plavac Mali still hasn't completely turned color. These grapes over here are ripe and then you can see some of these they're still red and then some green berries over here as well. Back in the winery we get to revisit one of our favorite Valerovic wines, the Les Chic Rosé. So it's very hard to make 100% rosé made of Plavac Mali. The newest releases offer some surprises like the fresh poship and the Plavac Mali gold edition. Now it's time to eat. The middle part is so moist. This is brodetto. Two local specialties, frog and eel brodette and frog legs cooked with onion. It's very close to what happens in a bar where you cook it with spring onion. You like it? Imaginary gladiatorata, chicken and pork. Somebody happy over there? When you don't talk too much it's good. After dinner Josip shows us some of his experiments. Plavac Mali harvested at different dates with different maceration times. We love to see this curiosity and it's much needed in Dalmatia as Josip explains. We have everything good but we need to work a lot for that we can compete. If you're going abroad to the other country, very great people know about Croatia, Croatian wine, but we have more than 130 autochthonic variety indigenous. So there is our mission to get this variety to the world. Well it's that time of year. It's late August in Dalmatia, Croatia so we're going to get ready to harvest some grapes. It's hot in Dalmatia when post-ship ripens so harvesting at night helps to preserve acidity and aroma. Oh I love this acidity. It's been a long night. The grapes are all in the basket and we'll send them to the winery. It will cool for a bit a few hours and then we'll start processing the grapes tomorrow morning. We really love 2019 and 2020 looks good so I'm looking forward to seeing how it will turn out. Even though Komarna is a young region it looks like it's in good hands. We've seen some old friends and met some new ones on this trip. We're always a little sad to leave Dalmatia but we'll be back soon. Thanks for watching. Hey you made it to the end. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Click the bell so you know when new videos are out. If you like content like this check out our Patreon page where you get some behind the scenes exclusive content. Thanks for watching. Cheers.