{"id":813,"date":"2016-09-11T15:59:52","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T14:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=813"},"modified":"2016-09-11T16:13:59","modified_gmt":"2016-09-11T15:13:59","slug":"plastovo-wine-vina-sladic-croatia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/plastovo-wine-vina-sladic-croatia\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastovo wine, Vina Sladi\u0107, Croatia"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final full day of the AdVintage 2016 wine tour<\/a> saw us heading northwest from Trogir to the village of Plastovo, near the town\u00a0of Skradin and the tourist magnet of the Krka National Park<\/a>\u00a0(which we visited immediately after the tasting).<\/p>\n

\"Krka<\/a>

Krka Falls<\/p><\/div>\n

Plastovo is on the boundary of Northern Dalmatia (Sjeverna Dalmacija) and the\u00a0Dalmatian Interior (Dalmatinska Zagora), and the area was heavily damaged\u00a0in the Croatian war of Independence that started in 1991, being within the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) that existed until 1995.<\/p>\n

For wine it is more famous for the BIBICh winery, which has been exporting to the US for a few\u00a0years. However, we were going to another family business also\u00a0making wine for several generations at Vina\u00a0Sladi\u0107<\/a>, where\u00a0brothers Juraj and Ante have taken over from their father Marinko.\"sladic-winery\"<\/a>\"sladic-corks\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Ante<\/a>

Ante Sladi\u0107<\/p><\/div>\n

It was Ante Sladi\u0107 who presented the wines and spoke to us about them and the area, while\u00a0we enjoyed the usual delicious snacks of local hard cheese, pr\u0161ut wrapped around grissini and fresh tomato,\u00a0before finishing with dark chocolate cake and some potent liqueur.<\/p>\n

Sladi\u0107 grows\u00a015,000 vines of\u00a0indigenous grapes Debit, Mara\u0161tina, Plavina, and Lasina\u00a0at 250-300m altitude. The vineyards are\u00a0moderated by\u00a0sea breezes\u00a0and the nearby river Krka,\u00a0\u00a0giving cool nights which maintain\u00a0acidity in the\u00a0grapes.<\/p>\n

Red grapes Plavina and Lasina are truly local, only grown in a 50km area; the white Debit used to be regarded as only fit for bulk plonk, but\u00a0is now making some interesting wines when treated carefully.\u00a0The story goes that the grape got its name\u00a0when\u00a0the Croatians used it\u00a0to pay their tax deb(i)t<\/em>\u00a0to Napoleon during the region’s short inclusion in\u00a0the first French Empire (1806-1812).\"sladic-tricolour\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The wines (all unfiltered);<\/p>\n

2013 Debit, 12% abv. This had a sweet floral nose with a hint of almond. On the palate it had a lovely dry approach, dry edges with a long smooth finish; very easy drinking and perfectly matched\u00a0with the cheese (drizzled with olive oil and rosemary).<\/p>\n

2015\u00a0Mara\u0161tina,\u00a014% abv. 24 hours skin maceration has given a ripe, textured and and full flavoured wine. There was a touch or pear-drop on the nose, a bit of grip on the palate and it carried the alcohol well.<\/p>\n

2014 Cuve\u00e9,\u00a012.5% abv. A blend of Plavina and Lasina matured for 12 months in barrique. The nose was lightly smoky with mint and tobacco. Served lightly chilled, this had good balance and was very refreshing; one of the best value wines of the trip\u00a0for its 69 Kuna (about \u00a38 with the reduced post-Brexit exchange rate).<\/p>\n

2014 Lasina, 13% abv. Only 900 bottles of this are made each year from old-vines. There was a ripe, almost floral-sweet nose. and red fruit was dominant on the palate. This was a medium bodied wine with good balance of fruit and texture behind strong acidity, which should hold together well for another couple of years.<\/p>\n

\"Sladi\u0107<\/a>

Sladi\u0107 top wines<\/p><\/div>\n

The beautiful sunshine and relaxed, friendly atmosphere of the tasting\u00a0in the family courtyard was a perfect end to our formal wine-tasting tour – I felt as calm as the family cat, Messi!<\/p>\n

\"Messi\"<\/a>

Messi<\/p><\/div>\n

Ante was another of the young generation of winemakers with the\u00a0enthusiasm I saw in Milan\u00a0Grabovac\u00a0and Anton Kova\u010d earlier in the week\u00a0– the future of Dalmatian wine is in good hands!<\/p>\n

\u017divjeli!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final full day of the AdVintage 2016 wine tour saw us heading northwest from Trogir to the village of Plastovo, near the town\u00a0of Skradin and the tourist magnet of the Krka National Park\u00a0(which we visited immediately after the tasting). … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,23,43],"tags":[65,160],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":907,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions\/907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}