The Wines of Croatia - Part One - White Wines

Throughout our time here in Croatia, we have been sampling the local wines whenever possible. Though we didn't come anywhere close to arriving at a full understanding of the depth and breadth of Croatian wines, we did learn a few things that I want to remember the next time we come here. We all had a general sense that most Croatian wines are not produced at enough volume that we could find them in the United States.

We had all heard that the most famous wine that originates from Croatia is Zinfandel. Apart from that, I was not familiar

Croatian White Wines (that we tried) . . . . .

Posip

On our first night in Dubrovnik, we had dinner at the Excelsior Hotel. With our appetizer course, we ordered a Croatian white wine that originated on the island of Korcula -- a place we would visit later in the trip. The grape is called 'Posip' and though it originated on the island of Korcula, it is now grown all over the Dalmatian region. Throughout our trip we ordered many different bottles of Posip and we were rarely disappointed. Apparently, Posip wines have been produced in Croatia for centuries. It is a light yet complex wine that is somewhere between a Sauvignon Blanc and a Chardonnay. It is usually light in color with high acidity and minerality. It goes well with fish and any seafood. It's also a great wine to sip in hot weather! I believe this is the bottle we tried at Prora, the outdoor restaurant at the Excelsior Hotel on our first night in 

Croatia on this trip . . . It is from a vineyard called Korta Katarina.

On our second night in Dubrovnik we went to a restaurant in the Old Town center -- a fantastic seafood restaurant called 'Proto.' We got to try our second Posip wine here and it, too, was excellent:

This Posip wine was from the same vineyard as the wine we had the night before, Korta Katarina. I recently learned the vineyard is also a Relais Chateaux Hotel of the same name and is located north if Dubrovnik. It looks gorgeous:

Vugava Viska

Later in the trip we tried a white wine called 'Vugava' or 'Vugava Viska.' This was another light yet complex white wine that seemed to go well with fish and seafood, or really anything! On our visit to the Zinfandel Wine Bar in Split (which we highly recommend to anybody), the waiter introduced us to this wine. After doing some reading about this wine, I see that it is called 'The Queen of Croatian Wines' as it is the oldest wine varietal produced here. It is produced by the Lipanovic winery on the island of Vis.

Similar to the Posip wine, this white wine was crisp with high acidity and minerality. It went quite well with our cheese and charcuterie  plate! The winery website describes this wine as follows (and it seems accurate based on our experience):

'It is characterized by a wonderful natural golden yellow color. Its scent is specific, varied, unobtrusive, pleasant, deep and full. This is a beautifully aged wine with fruity aromas of vineyard peaches, intermingled with the aromas of almonds and oranges, and featuring light notes of rowan, candied orange peel and roasted almonds.'

Chardonnay

We tried a few different Chardonnays here in Croatia. Unfortunately, I didn't get the information for most of them. However, on our final day in Split we had lunch at a restaurant called Epetium in an adjacent town called Stobrec. This restaurant was recommended to us by the waiter at the Zinfandel Wine Bar and it was a 15 minute cab ride from our hotel. Unfortunately, we were not overly impressed with the food, atmosphere or the service at Epetium 😞.

However, we did like the wine that was suggested by our grim-faced waiter! The Chardonnay he recommended was called Krauthaker Rosenberg and the winery is located in Northeastern Croatia near the border with Bosnia-Hercegovina. The wine was  crisp with a hint of oak and high acidity. It went well with the octopus salad.