The Pelješac peninsula, just north of Dubrovnik, is recognized as a source of some of the best Croatian red wines, essentially all of Plavac Mali. The first winery visit is Milos, which was one of the first private wineries established in Croatia after the fall of communism in Yugoslavia and currently manages about 35 acres with vines as old as 35 years. They age their wine in old oak barrels to minimize the oak transfer and fermentation is driven by naturally available yeasts. Blue Danube is their importer to the US. We tasted 5 wines, though that is not their complete selection. The rosé is a light dry wine with notes of honey, strawberries, and peach skin and is intended to be consumed young. The 2010 quality red of Plavac Mali has a pepper, dark cherry, aromatic herb nose and tastes of black pepper, dark cherry and tart tannins. The premium quality Stagnum Plavac Mali from 2006 had a smokey nose of overripe dark fruit and flavors of dark fruit, peppers, leather, cinnamon and cloves, and an edge of bitterness. The last wine at this location was the semi-sweet red which had significant structure and balance and was not really sweet, so much as forward in its dark cherry fruit. We noted that the heavier richer red wines deserved ample time to breathe, and this was confirmed at our next winery. Check out: Milos Winery.
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