 I'm Matthew Horkey and I'm Shereen Tan. Together we are Exotic Wine Travel. We've spent the last three years traveling around the world writing and speaking about unique and exciting wines. Our journey has taken us to both lesser known and established wine regions. In 2016 we came to Croatia for the first time. We fell in love with the country and the wines, prompting us to write the book Cracking Croatian Wine, a visitor-friendly guide. Now we're at it again. We're going to retour the country and bring our book to life. We aim to take you deep into the Croatian food and wine scene. So sit back, relax and join us as we go Cracking Croatian Wine. There are no shortages of spectacular views in Dalmatia and the Makarska Riviera is no different. Today we're taking a short ferry ride to the eastern tip of Hvar. It's a long skinny island producing some of the country's most exciting wines. A small two-lane road transverses the island of Hvar. It's a drive it takes slowly because there are some phenomenal views to be had. Hvar town is the most popular place on the island. It's a posh place on the west coast and it has become the place to party. The rest of the island is laid back with small Mediterranean villages that seem lost in time. The Pitvei tunnel connects the northern part of the island to the slopes on the south side. It's a 1.4 kilometer or about one mile drive on a single track road. The south side of Hvar is stunning. There are only a few small roads that snake through small villages. The drive gives way to steep vineyards and wide panoramic views of the Adriatic Sea. We're heading to Zlatanotok, one of the first private wineries in Croatia established by the late Zlatan Plankovic. We meet his daughter Antonija at the Zlatan guesthouse which is built under the Plankovic family home. The property also features a marine and restaurant which is only open during the spring and summer tourist season. The restaurant also sits on top of an underwater cellar which is still in use. We're hungry and the restaurant has prepared a few local dishes for us. Before we start eating we sip on the latest vintage of Zlatan poship which is one of our favorite examples of the grape. It's always been one of my favorite simple fresh-out poship and it's consistent every year. Next we get some fish and fresh octopus but the main is something special. This is Gregata, a fish, onion and potato stew. In the past this was considered peasant food but now it's something that's infashioned. Well it's an old dish. It used to be that people would fish and have the garden and that's what they can make. It looks so simple but it really reminds me of the food that I eat at home. I mean to chew fish is like that sort of the same. You steam the fish, all the flavors go into the soup. It's ridiculous. You drank all the soup, look! It's time for dessert. We pair it with a Zlatan pora, a late-harvest red dessert wine made from Suryana Kastalinski better known to Americans as Zinfandel or Italians as Primitivo. It's an outstanding wine made in small quantities so you'll have to come here to pick it up. In the morning we eat breakfast with Antonia before heading up to the winery to talk with her brother Nicola. My father started producing wine just for the guests because we have housed their pension. We always have guests. Until 95 nobody wanted to drink our red wine. It was plava smale. You can give to the people. Not sell, not only like gift. And after that in 96 was Pope from Rome. He was in Croatia and in the airplane they have our wines and that Pope Ivan Pavlov one second. He didn't like so much wines but when he drank one glass of plavats he asked for one more and the reporter brought it in the newspaper and after that was missing like 50% in one day. Everyone wants to drink this like a plavat. Zlatan otak makes a number of delicious plavats Mali Bodlings. Our favorite is the plavats Grand Crew a humongous red made from old vines just above the winery. The city of Stardegrad which translates to old city sits near the Stardegrad plain one of Croatia's UNESCO World Heritage sites. It is the oldest continuously planted vineyard in the world. Grape vines and olive trees have covered this plain for the last 24 centuries. There are ancient ruins, walls and cisterns present on the plain. They were set up by the Greeks who brought viticulture to the island. The wealth of viticulture on Hoare continues to this day with numerous domestic producers in addition to commercial ones like Saadec, Vunevic and Plancic. Hoare is even attracted a master of wine. Joe Ahern produces small batches of exciting wines from indigenous varieties like plavats Mali, Poship and Darnakusha. The village of Yelsa is home to a few stellar producers and one of the most famous is Tomic. Andro Tomic is the founder and he's known for making soft international-styled plavats Mali with easy tannins. The island is out of power when we arrive so the winery is lit by candlelight. Nonetheless we get the chance to retaste the newest vintages of the premium wines. The Tomic Kaplar a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon plavats Mali in addition to the plavats Mali Barique. Shareen is impressed with the newest addition of the ladder. I know 2011 is a hotter year and there is no sign of cooked plum, cooked jam kind of smell. It's really fresh, led by way of fruit. It is what plavats Mali is supposed to be. Like it has to be pretty, perfume and this has it on the nose. Just down the road a small Canoba house is one of Croatia's cult wines. Evo Dubalković produces small quantities of highly sought-after wines in the basement of his house. With an appointment you can come and taste his stellar wines and urban fused olive oils. Dubalković doesn't produce any fresh white wines. He does make three skin contact amber or orange wines. They pay homage to some of the old-school wines Evo's father used to make. 2007. It was a year when we tried eight-year-old wine that wine made my father and it's probably that day that was really good wine in good condition and that day I decided to do the same things and the reaction of people who like that kind of wine was really good. Reaction of my local friends and people was terrible. The Moyem which translates to Mayem is an orange wine made from the local grape Marastina. It's highly structured, chewy and delicious. Evo also makes four different reds from plavats Mali. His Medvedice is always impressive. Vintage after vintage. Whoa, that is a true plavat. My point of view, the plats Mali from Khar is a little more harmonic. Sometimes people ask me what I do with my wines. Nothing, finally, and that is everything. I don't add anything. The idea is to to put in your glass the old nature which our grapes have in vineyard. We try to live what nature gives to us and that's really true and it's simple. You like it or you don't like it. That is that. If you like it, you drink it. If you like it, you drink it again. Yeah. In the morning, we take a short ferry ride from Yelsa to the island of Brach. It's only a 30 minute ride. The town of Bol is close to Brach's most popular tourist attraction, the Zlatani Rai or Golden Cape. It's a triangular beach that dons many Croatian tourist brochures. We're not here for the beach. We're here to visit our friend Amia Mayedin, the marketing director of Stina Winery. He's agreed to take us up to Stina's prime vineyard spots. These steep plots of Plovets Mali down the cover of our book Cracking Croatian Wine. Stina started this vineyard from scratch. We can't imagine the investment it took to clear the land and build these stone walls, especially at these steep gradients. The winery also owns another plot that has an old monastery on the property. In the future, Stina wants to make this a tasting room with grand views of the sea and nearby Hvar. We take the steep road back down to the winery to taste the latest vintages. Stina bought the empty building that was the cooperative winery of Brach during Yugoslavian times. They have renovated it into a slick wine bar and modern winery. After some barrel tasting, we sit down for lunch to taste the latest bottled vintages. Our favorites every year from Stina are the white wines made from poship and vugava. The latter is a rare great native to the island of Vis. This vintage of vugava is crisp and mineral laden. Shereen's favorite wines from Stina are their tripe drag, known in the USA as Zinfandel, and their Plovets Mali Remek Diello, a wine made only in special years. This time around, it really reminds me of some of the very best Zinfandel from California. The very best. Very nice. Just the concentration, the structure, the finish, very elegant, a lot of power. The name of Diello, master piece. So it is something that skills master or master just a few times in his life. The best, the best art here. Wow, this is a hardcore ferry. Two levels of cars. We take the ferry back to the mainland. We're heading to the Trogir area. The city of Trogir is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was in this area that American researcher Carol Meredith and her team found nine vines of the original Zinfandel, known locally as Sotianek Kastylensky or tripe drag. We're not here to hunt for vines though. We're heading to the brand new Hotel Ola. It's a modern four-star hotel that boasts beautiful views of Trogir and the nearby island known as Otaktyovo. The hotel is also the site of an innovative restaurant known as Black Pepper. Hotel manager Magna Bonacin joins us to tell us about the restaurant. It's a traditional Mediterranean kitchen but on a modern way. It's based on healthy food and we promote healthy lifestyle here in Croatia. Sounds good. Let the meal begin. Our server Christina brings out the first dish. It's from our garden, from the Ola garden. You have the mustard sauce with honey. Okay. Very good texture. It's almost like you taste a burger on a plate but without the bun. The chef is Rojica Jukicic who continues to dazzle us. It's hardy which are stuffed with red onions that was fully cooked. You have fried shrimps with garlic sauce. I love the pairing of the sardine with the onion. Like salty, sweet, savory. You know what? I actually wanted red wine with this dish. It's a baby squid to be accurate. The cheese, it's a lace cheese. Exceptionally inventive. I love this dish. It's the chic cheese that makes a huge difference for me. It's like sweet, a little bit pungent. More gregada. This time a modern version. You have a baby monkfish, sea bass, good potatoes. You have a little filet beneath the potatoes and a shrimp. We're stuffed but Magda joins us to explain the dessert. This is a traditional Croatian sweet. My grandmother used to make it also. Really? Yes but this is a modern way. Of course. Tap that off with a glass of the local sweet wine Procek and we're ready to call it a night. It's always hard to leave the stunning scenery of Dalmatia and unfortunately our time on the coast is running out. Our life on the road, breakfast, but sure ain't working hard. We're heading back to the capital Zagreb. We're going to be taking you to producers that many visitors rarely see on Croatia's continental mainland. If you would like to learn more about Croatia and Croatian wine keep a lookout for our next episode and check out our book Cracking Croatian Wine.