Dalmatia Part 1: Grk, the most feminine of all grapes

The Bire winery, Peljesac and Adriatic in the distance

Grk has to be one of the most fascinating grape varieties I've ever encountered. You can only find it in the sandy soils of the vineyards surrounding the beach town of Lumbarda, on Korčula island in Croatia. An unnamed present from 4th century BC Greece, the Korčulans christened it simply as Grk or “Greek”. All attempts to find the equivalent variety back in Greece have failed, and even Italy's “Greco” is not an exact match.

Grk is a survivor – the sandy soil saved it from the late 19^th century Phylloxera epidemic, as the phylloxera louse cannot burrow through sand. But how much longer it will prosper is open to question – with only female flowers, Grk must be planted next to other varieties in order to pollinate successfully. The tradition here is to co-plant with Plavac Mali (Dalmatia's most important red grape), alternating three rows of each. With this built in fragility, and such little plant material available (less than 50 h…