The big Malvazia tour

At one point in the beginning of the 90s, a few Croatians came together and figured: let’s plant some Malvazia grapes, revive our winemaking industry, make some olive oil too while we’re at it, put a strong marketing campaign behind the whole thing and tie all this together with tourism and great programs. Their plan seems to be working. Today, the Malvazia grape is as much a part of Istria as its beautiful beaches. It is a white grape variety originally from Cyprus or Crete. Before the philoxera crisis, supposedly 30,000 hectares of this grape were planted here. Over the past ten years, more and more of this grape has been planted, encouraged by grants and other forms of support. Apart from this, olive production has also received momentum and the glistening leaves of the olive trees can be seen throughout Istria. It’s obvious Croatians are on the right track and I give it only a few years, maybe a decade, before Istria will become synonymous with this wonderful grape variety. ...

It all began at one of our Wednesday wine tastings when our friend Gy. Zoli brought a few bottles of Malvazia for us to try out. I immediately took liking to this variety and decided then and there to travel down to Istria on summer holiday to see this variety for myself. And so it happened, in the middle of August we packed our things for our trip: tent, table, chairs, flashlight, bicycles, barbeque, swimsuits, snorkeling equipment, wine opener, wine glasses and some cash. We found a place a few miles north of Porec, at Camping Park Umag. We chose to set up camp here because it was in the middle of wine country, had a beautiful beach and was located right next to a charming small village called St. Lorenzen (which we liked to call Szent Lőrinc).
Of Istria’s over forty larger wineries, most can be found in this area. Our daily routine looked much like this: wake up between 8 and 9 in the morning; go to Szent Lőrinc for coffee at the café next to the church; on our way back, stop and get fresh pastries/bread at the bakery; then came sea, sunshine and snorkeling; at about 3-4 in the afternoon we left to go wine tasting. The first day there, we decided to try the „Malvazia Bike Tour” bicycle route that was about a 30-kilometer ride. We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into when we left in what turned out to be the biggest heat (about 40 degrees Celsius) on our city bikes on dirt roads spewed with rocks the size of our fists. But the route itself was amazing as it crossed forested areas, meadows, Italian-style villages, and was bordered with bounteous olive trees and grapevines. After riding about 15 kilometers, we arrived at Brtonigla where five larger wineries can be found: Otium, Ravalico, Istravino, Cattunar, and Veralda. After quenching our immediate thirst with half a litre of water, we tasted a few Malvazias at the nearest restaurant we could find and then, finally refreshed, we headed to Veralda winery. A small, family-run winery with mom, dad and kids behind the counter drying the wine glasses for the festival they were attending that evening in the city center. We tasted their entire wine list: Malvazija, Muskat, Refosk (a rosé), Cabernet Sauvignon, and two kinds of Merlot. The Malvazia was delicious, though it was high in alcohol. Nevertheless, it was complex, enjoyable, had nice barrel tones and strong flavor. The other pleasant surprise was their 2007 Merlot Reserve. Fruity, smooth, great character and nicely integrated oak tones. The rest of their wines were forgettable.
At night, there was a big event in the city: tables were set up outside, fire were spits ablaze. Here we tasted more local malvazias, among them one delicious one from Prelac–Momjani winery. The next day, after our obligatory coffee, tan, beer, and snorkeling, we hit the road this time via car. First we stopped at Degrassi winery, which, unfortunately, was closed, but saw it was a beautiful Mediterranean-style building with pool and garden area. After this, we went to Kabola winery/restaurant right by the Slovenian border in a beautiful mountain village. An elegant establishment where, right in the entrance, you see a replica of the truffle the owner found that made it into the Guinness Book of World Records at 1.31 kilograms! We sat out on the veranda and the waiter brought out their Malvazia lineup out on a cart. The first was a 2008 vintage with nutty, peanut brittle and caramel notes. With this kind of nose, it is obvious that the barrel tones dominated, which I think was rather unfortunate as the varietal character of this wine is wonderful in and of itself and should not be suppressed. The next wine in line was a 2007 Malvazia Reserve, darker in color with even stronger oak tones. Floral aromas, vanilla and caramel, slightly weak acidity—the mineral notes do not come through. Just when I thought that the barrel tones could not be any more dominant, we tasted the 2004 Malvazia Unica. Golden-amber in color, a bit oxidized—you could practically bite into the toasted oak aromas. Nutty pastry, creamy, buttery, raisin flavors. The next wine was a one-of-a-kind 2006 Malvazija Amfora. As the name suggests, this wine was fermented in an amphora, and has a taste that reminds me of orange marmalade. Deep amber in color leaning to almost red hues. There is something a bit harsh in its aroma; sweet in taste, but a bit lacking in acidity. Of the four wines we tasted here, I enjoyed the first the best, but there was a time when I really enjoyed strong oaky wines would have probably chosen the second or third wine as my favorite.
Not far from here was Kozlovics winery. We did not make an appointment ahead of time and when we arrived, we were greeted by an old man who only spoke Italian. He was kind enough to open the tasting room for us we tasted a few of the wines, among them a 2008 Malvazia. Fresh, fruity, crisp, great acidity, true varietal character, notes of mint, fresh-cut grass, elderberry, full on the palate, pleasant mineral notes, long finish. 13% alcohol. Great balance, wonderful harmony, the strong barrel notes we’d come to expect were nowhere to be found. A winner, we chose this wine for that night’s dinner. We had some fish we bought earlier in the day—two Gold Bass, two Wolf Bass and a few sardines we received as a gift—and decided to grill them up later on that night. We drizzeled the fish with fresh, local olive oil, some salt and pepper and slapped those babies on the grill with some slices of zucchini. The Malvazia we bought was a great accompaniment with all its natural flavors.
On our last day in here, we “vacationed” until two in the afternoon and left for home, but of course, we stopped at one last winery on the way. This time we made a stop at Matosevic winery. Here we tasted three kinds of Malvazia, one reductive, one barrique, and one aged in a French oak barrel. All had great aromas, wonderfully integrated oak tones, nice acid spine, perfect balance. After these, we tasted a 2005 Malvazia aged in the wood from a locust tree. It was very interesting, but I wasn’t particularly impressed. It reminded me of Hungarian fish soup (probably because we always make the fire with the same wood). Regardless, all their wines were pleasant and our stop here was a nice ending to our little Malvazia tour. For all you wine tourists out there, I highly suggest taking this trip because nowhere else will you be able to taste this exotic local variety. All the wineries are easily accessible by bike and their opening hours flexible (nevertheless, its a good idea to make an appointment ahead of time). On our trip, there were pamphlets and brochures galore, so there is no shortage of information. Even from a gastronomic standpoint, it would be difficult to find fault with all the wonderful seafood, fresh, local ingredients and wonderfully prepared dishes. Most of the white table wine you’ll find in Malvazia, but if you don’t want to risk ordering a wine perhaps sub par, the price of bottled wine is between 70-150 kunas. If you decide to make this trip yourself, I wish you all a happy vacationing!!!

Pictures in the gallery!

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