But then, there was a moment in Orsan Restaurant, when I held before me a glass of Grgic Posip. It was slightly viscous, and swirled in the glass in slow-motion. The colour was vibrant, but not the urine-like yellow of all the other wines I had drunk over the previous week - no, it was tinged with green, like a peridot. And in the heat, pears, lemon blossom and vanilla kept on lifting their way out of the glass. Finally, a Croatian wine breakthrough!
Milkenko Grgic has made wine for Robert Mondavi, and was responsible for shocking the French into the realization that there were other countries in the world that could produce a reasonable drop in a blind tasting known as the "Judgement of Paris" which was later the subject of the film "bottle shock". He produced the 1973 Montelena Chardonnay (the film concentrated on the other wine, the Stag's Leap, which was named best red.)
He started his own vineyard, Grgich Hills in California shortly after (Calling himself Mike, and adding the h on his surname so English speakers would pronounce it properly), which to this day has a cult following. In 1996 he also set up shop back in Croatia, just above the sleepy and beautiful seaside hamlet of Trstenik and is finally bringing the words "Croatia" and "good wine" back together in a sentence.
The valley finally found its way to the sea, and we wound our way towards Trstenik. As it was only 10 am, we decided to visit Orebic and Korcula first. I've spoken about Korcula already - a bewithching island with so much more to see than I could in the time. Alone it required at least a full day, maybe two. Orebic would be a good holiday base - nearly halfway between Dubrovnik and Split, close to the Serbian border, and sitting on a strip of bleached stone shores and aqua water.
In Australia, vineyards are geometric sweeping plains in softly undulating terrain. In France, vineyards are pristine and perfectly manicured, accompanying chateaux and ornate wrought iron gates. In Italy they are quaint irregular plots surrounded in fields of different shades of green and gold like a patchwork quilt. But here, the vineyards really are something else.
The Posip we tasted again, even though we had met its acquaintance many times already in various restaurants. We were also pleasantly surprised by the Plavac - a deep, red, violet-nosed and tar-berry filled wine, apparently related to Californian Zinfandel (and Italian Primitivo). We bought both, and also a bottle of the Grgich Hills Californian Fume Blanc (also good). The Posip has made it home to Dubai with me, and it sits here, along with a recent vintage of the Montelena Chardonnay that I found in Dubai Duty free on the way home. I wonder if they can still do it without Grgic at the helm...?
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The Grgic Winery is located just above Trstenic - there is a large sign on the road, and it is easily found while winding your way down to the tiny village. There are restaurants in the village - next time we might stop for lunch. It is open from 10am to 5pm and tastings are free (but please buy a bottle - it's really great stuff)
From Orebic you can take a ferry to Korcula - they leave about every 30 minutes (less over lunchtime), and there is also a car ferry and some fairly cheap taxi boats available.
for further reading on the wine, check this out: Wines of Croatia