Magic world of wines of Hvar
The tradition of wine production and viticulture on the island of Hvar reaches back to the ancient times. In the 4th century BC Greeks from the island of Paros established their colony Faros on the today's territory of Stari Grad. They brought the field crop of vine from their original homeland. Metal coins bear witness to the importance of vine and wine for the old Greeks. The coins were forged in Faros and Issa (today's Vis) and they portrayed a cluster of grapes with vine leaves on one side and a wine goblet (kantharos) on the other. With the arrival of Romans in 219 BC the cultivation of vine spread. Remains of wine-presses can be found in the ruins of Roman villae rusticae. The Statute of Hvar Commune from 1331 forbade the import of wine on the territory of the Commune of Hvar, unless it was a bad year.
In the middle of the 19th century, oidium, phylloxera and peronospora destroyed the vineyards in France and Italy, which led to the increase in the demand for Dalmatian wines which were characterized with its colour, higher percentage of alcohol and the specific aroma. At the time, grape farmers on Hvar, as well as the rest of Dalmatia, started to cut down olive, fig and carob trees in order to plant vines, and exclusively red sorts.
At the beginning of 1892 Austria and Italy signed a trade agreement which enabled the import of cheep Italian wines on the Austro-Hungarian market that caused the crisis of Dalmatian viticulture. Only two years after phylloxera appeared in Dalmatia and arrived to Hvar in 1909. Crisis in viticulture obliged a lot of agricultural laborers to leave for the New World in search for work. In those foreign countries a lot of people from Hvar were the pioneers of wine growing. Also, the burst of World War I prevented the restoration of vineyards.
The phenomenon of private wine producers at the end of 1980s introduced a new perspective in the production of islands' wines. Unlike in the time of socialism, when the aspirations were on the quantity, private producers underline the importance of quality. Many rewards they won on international wine competitions are a witness of their success.
If you ever happen to be on the island of Hvar, do not miss to taste some of these wines:
Bogdanuša is the original sort from the island of Hvar. It is one of the best Dalmatian white wines with 11-12.5 alcohol percentage, light yellow in colour, somewhat sourish and mild scented. The largest quantities are grown in the area near Vrboska.
Parč was grown from ancient times on the eastern part of the island of Hvar. Its characteristics are scent of muscat, golden yellow colour and around 12 per cent alcohol.
Plavac mali is the most famous Dalmatian wine sort and the best quality wines of this red sort come from the south slopes of the island of Hvar. It is characterized with dark red colour, very pleasant bouquet and specific aroma of plavac with 13-14.5 per cent alcohol. This wine is the best Hvar's viticulture has to offer.
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Foto i tekst: Siniša Mikulčić Matković - Secret Hvar travel agency
http://www.secrethvar.com/
Gastronomy of the Dalmatia hinterland
GASTRO BLOG
Setting off on a 20-minute uphill journey from Split, you come to Sinj, the town of the Alka Tournament, Feast of the Assumption, the River Cetina, and the Alkar and Junak sports clubs, acres of arable land in the Sinjsko Polje Valley, and karst hills. Sinj has a traffic light and some sort of airport, so you see, you can even take a charter flight to Sinj.
Hundreds of texts and books have been written about Sinj and the entire Cetinska Krajina Region, miles of cine-film recorded, and still, there's always something to add, a sort of tiny details which some before us have skipped.
How beautiful and specific the area is people got to know a long time ago, even the old Romans did. At Čitluk, a village at the northern town gates, they founded the colony of Colonia Claudia Aequum, and you know that the old Romans built towns and walls in a planned and organised way. Water, soil, sewage system, the wind... and so on, they calculated it all.
What a pleasant place to live! Some remains of villas rusticas and tombstones were also found, as proof of the fact that Roman legionaries enjoyed their retirement in and around Sinj after they had conquered the whole world known by that time.
And then a big bang came about, there was a blackout, everything was plunged into darkness, Rome went bankrupt, the time had stopped, some new barbaric people from the north came, they became domesticated and put land register in order and then decided they would never again be driven off from their plots.
These people kept their promise, the region's entire history was marked by wars, earth was soaked in blood, the shadows of men and their steps were almost a rarity, so folks, don't wonder at great pride of local people!
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I'll stick to history a little more. This time travel writers from the 17th and the 18th centuries have their turn.
The first one is the Italian monk, biologist, geologist and travel writer Alberto Fortis. In case you're interested in Dalmatia and its history, get yourself this book, it will help you a lot. Today when we're connected in all possible ways, just imagine how he felt riding a horse along overgrown Roman roads and bare karst, he almost cried when he looked in the direction of the sea and islands, civilisation... thinking he would never come back again. The journey itself turned out to be better than he could ever imagine. If we pay no attention to the technical parts of the book, we'll notice that a great deal of the text is about spiza, or food, things to eat and drink.
Indeed, food and what people used to eat and drink was supposed to be the subject of this piece of writing, but I got a bit carried away, I mean you can't go to the kitchen right away. First we need to get familiar with some basic stuff, a bit of culture and a fragment of history.
So the first gastro Robinson was an Italian guy.
Of all things he liked most milk, prepared in all manner of ways. Kiselina, or home-made yoghurt, cream, butter, all kinds of cheese, sheep's milk cheese, cows' milk cheese and goats' milk cheese, he got so potty about the Meggle's ancestors that he used to finishalmost all of his works writingabout food and how the hosts are nice and how they eat good and healthy food. Of course, there're no light products, kefir or soya milk, but, dear folks, if you sniff out a little in peškarija and pazar,market-places in Sinj and Split, you'll see that there you can find exactly such kind of product.
Isn't cheese in mišina (washed sheepskin in which cheese is preserved with brine) a big hit today?
And not to mention roast meat? Lamb, turkey meat, venison?
All ofthis our Italian guy tasted, for now I've only followed him, I've got to, so as not to skip something by accident, well I still haven't tasted spit-roasted lamb in the outdoors, served onpogača, brown unleavened round wheat bread, now better known as Vrlička pogača (pogača typical of the town of Vrlika in the Dalmatian hinterland).
Well who knows, I might get lucky one day.
So as not to hurt veggies' feelings, it needs to be said, these folk used to gulp tons of shallot, red onion and garlic, nowadays you might say, ″chew Orbit gum after every meal…blah blah blah″.
Time flies, and one day in the year 1838 Sinj saw the certain crowned head. Bored with the sea and islands, he wanted to see what was there beyond the hills. His name was Frederick, King of Saxony. The King's attendant kept a diary, translated by our Ivan Mažuranić. Things would have all been shipshape, starting with the Alka, the neat and tidy little town itself, its lovely houses and gardens, polite hosts and marvellous food if on the menu there hadn't been – ice cream.
This kind of sweet food was brought to Sinj by Venetian soldiers, originally coming from Switzerland – the Trek family. How much folk were thrilled with ice cream shows this sentence: ″It would not disgrace even the Tomaso coffee house in Trieste!″
This extract from the diary simply shows that Sinj and the entire Cetinska Krajina Region were to wake up after centuries of wars and to actively take part in modern times that were about to come, but it also presents the region as a great blend of the Mediterranean and the continent, the West and the Orient, especially when talking about cuisine.
It's true enough that there's no such thing as ″Sinj cuisine″. It's also true that all of Croatian cookbooks contain recipes ending in ″à la Sinj″.
And I know that you've heard that the arambaši of Sinj (rolls of pickled cabbage leaves stuffed with chopped meat) are protected as part of intangible cultural heritage?
Is that right?
Maybe the best thing you can do is to travel up or down to Sinj. Restaurants are easy to find, I won't promote them for now, but I only need to tell you, these folk keep a good table and are hearty eaters!
Sure enough, here people still value highly the four seasons, or stađuni, and seasonal food, so don't worry, there isn't any industry here, but only fresh and pure air, lush scenery, the water in rivers and lakes is cold and drinkable and rich in fish. There're no GM meat or greens here, and it doesn't take a lot for you to get used to wine, it's a bit strong and dry, wines here are home-made.
Forget about heartburn as well, 'cause you'll have a home-made walnut grappa, or orahovica!
Mario Despotović
St. Martin’s Day in the Zagreb County
WINE HOLIDAY
In November, on St. Martin’s Day, must turns into wine. The popular St. Martin’s Day celebration is a wine holiday deeply embedded in the tradition of northwester Croatia, and as such it is celebrated in a special way. In the Zagreb County, St. Martin’s Day is celebrated in many towns and villages. Standing out among them, both with their special features of that tradition and the variety of their programmes, are Dugo Selo - whose patron saint is St. Martin is, as well as Samobor, Sveti Ivan Zelina and Velika Gorica.
11 November 2013
Open door days of agritourisms in Istria
PROMOTION OF RURAL HOUSEHOLDS AND THEIR FARMS
03.11.2013 - 24.11.2013
Open door days of agritourisms in Istria is organized by AZRRI ltd - Agency for Rural Development of Istria in cooperation with Istrian county agritourisms. The goal is to promote rural households and their farms, along with Istrian gastronomy as a trademark of rural areas. And, in that way surpass regional significance and become an internationally interesting destination. With the revival and expansion of traditional food and product, the offer is slowly returning to the countryside, to the flora and fauna of villages and hospitable rural household owners, much to the delight of the fans of good taste.
Open door days of agritourisms in Istria will be held from 03.11. to 24.11. (Sundays only) and 11 agritourisms will be included which will offer menu with promotional price of 60,00 HRK.
The program and menù of Open door days of agritourisms in Istria you can download HERE (only in croatian).
Info:
Foto: www.istra.hr