The Morning Claret

Simon J Woolf & Friends on Wild and Wonderful Wines

istria

Uros Klabjan pours a glass of young Malvazija
3 minute read

Uros Klabjan – Malvazija 2012

Every week, I select an orange wine (a white wine made with extended skin contact) that grabbed my attention. View the whole series here. You have to love a winemaker who recognises when refreshment comes first. I won’t ever forget Read more

Nicola Benvenuti
2 minute read

Benvenuti’s homage to a previous generation – Anno Domini 2010

Some varieties take to skin maceration like a duck to water. Malvasia Istriana is one of those, and there are a handful of producers in Croatia’s “Northern Tuscany” who are exploiting this quite delightfully -Giorgio Clai, Kabola and Benvenuti are the ones I’ve discovered so far.

cloudy day vineyards near motovun
6 minute read

Istria’s best wines – a brief round up

Decanter magazine’s September 2014 issue features my regional profile of Istria, arguably Croatia’s finest wine region – an area deserving a lot more attention than it currently gets. The wines and producers recommended in that article were necessarily constrained by what Read more

Super Istrian in a super heavy bottle . . .
3 minute read

Super Istrian meets Southern Plavac

The Morning Claret is delighted to be going on a brief sojourn to Istria later this week. Having travelled a couple of times in the Southern part of Croatia, I’m fascinated to see what the North of the country has Read more

dimitri brecevic
4 minute read

Hotel du Teran

Winemakers can be a tricksy bunch. There are the natural showmen and marketeers, keen to show you their “icon” wines and boast about how much new oak is used for the premium cuvees. Then there are the quiet taciturn types Read more

5 minute read

Istrian wine, naturally

I’ve had some wonderful encounters with Croatian wines over the years – the muscular reds from Dalmatia, on a visit to Dubrovnik back in 2003, and more recently an excellent Istrian expression of Malvasia. In a few weeks time I’ll Read more