Dalmatia is a modern-day paradise, perched along Croatian’s Adriatic coast. Tourists the world over flock to its crystal blue waters and enchanting ancient towns from Dubrovnik to Split and Zadar on the region’s northern limit, their red roofs basking in the sun.
Dalmatia’s coast and plentiful islands have long harboured a wine culture built on indigenous grape varieties that are tough to say and spell owing to their Slavic roots and abundant consonants.
The flagship wine for Dalmatia has long been Plavac Mali, a hearty red variety known for its higher alcohols and ample tannins. But as the region becomes a summertime playground for tourists and serious wine drinkers beginning to explore Dalmatia’s myriad varieties, a lighter, fresher style is being sought in red and white wines.
I recently visited the region twice after a 10-year hiatus and was taken by the wines being produced today and the fresh, youthful energy driving a wine renaissance.
The California connection
While the younger US wine industry is more established than Croatia’s, the coastal region of Dalmatia has been intimately linked to California. Zinfandel, the variety which launched California’s fine wine boom in the late 19th century, is genetically identical to the indigenous grape from Dalmatia.
Known locally by two names, Crljenak Kaštelanski and Tribidrag. The Dalmatian region of Kaštela and its rocky soils were confirmed as the original home of Zinfandel in a genetic analysis by UC Davis scientist Carole Meredith conducted in the 1990s.
The finding has reinvigorated local interest in the variety that had long given ground to the more regionally popular and easier to cultivate, Plavac Mali. Varietal Tribidrag and Crljenak have seen plantings increase in the last 10 years.
In addition to California’s fine wine origins having deep Dalmatian roots, one of the most historically significant American winemakers also comes from the Dalmatian coast.
Miljenko ‘Mike’ Grgich was born in the hillside village of Desne, above the Neretva River, in April 1923. He would flee (what was then) Yugoslavia via Germany and Canada before making his way to the Napa Valley in 1958.
There, he would craft perhaps the most important wine in American history. At Chateau Montelena, in 1973, Grgich made the white wine that won the 1976 Judgement of Paris, besting the best white Burgundies in the competition and shaking the world of wine to its core.
His Chardonnay showed that America could produce wine as well as anywhere in the world.
A stylistic shift
The variety most associated with Dalmatia is the big, boisterous red wine from the long-heralded Plavac Mali. Hearty and a tad rustic, Plavac Mali is high in alcohol and tannin.
It has long been the primary driver for the region’s fine wine industry and is responsible for the fine wine world paying attention to Dalmatia.
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