Summer Lane Installment 4: A Visit to Grgich Winery

Being Americans and looking for a touchstone of comparison for Croatian wines, where else would we go next, but to Grgic in Trstnik. Grgic was started in 1996 by the famous wine producer Croatian born and educated 'Mike' Grgich, who in 1977 founded Grgich Hills Estate in Rutherford CA. By starting the vineyard back in his home country, he set out to show the potential of Croatian wine and the winery makes two wines one each from autochthonous varieties, Plavac Mali and Pošip. The facilities are perched on a knoll at the mouth of the village bay and vineyards run up a steep hillside behind. The red wine is a 50/50 blend of grapes from these vines and vines in Dingač, the district known for its warmth and southern exposure just a little farther out on the peninsula. The Pošip grapes for the white wine come from the adjacent island of Korčula. The 2013 Pošip is a well integrated and balanced with grapefruit scents and flavors. Gladly, we sampled two bottles of the Plavac Mali—one that had been open since the previous night and one that had just been opened. If our testing was representative, aeration is strongly recommended to gain fuller more accessible flavors. The wine is a heavy red with lots of tannin, a nose of smoke, earth, leather, clove, dark chocolate and coffee and flavors of chocolate and dark fruits. Grgich Hills Estate imports the Plavac Mali and sells it at their tasting rooms in CA.