 I'm Matthew Horkey and I'm Sherin 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. When it comes to wine, Croatia is full of surprises. Most visitors head to the coast but there are some fantastic wines to be had around Zagreb in the region known as the Ublens. Most Slovenia is just east of Zagreb. It's a small rural area with undulating hills. There's a unique local white grape here known as Skirlet. Ivan Kosovic has a winery and a small three and a half hectare plot in this area. His vineyards are certified organic and he makes wine with as little intervention as possible. The vineyard is overlooked by a small cabin from the 1800s and it's where Ivan crafts his wines. Although he is mostly famous for Skirlet, he also makes beautiful reds from Pinot Noir, Zvigel and Frankovka. His best wine in our opinion is his Skirlet Selexia. Everyone said it's tasty on the nose. It resembles them of a good aged wrizzling but in the mouth it's something totally different. Probably the best wine I ever made six years in a bottle now and we just open it and it's great. It's not Slovenian. Skirlet is a grape that was made in a simple white wine in the past but Ivan and other producers in the area are trying to change its reputation. Skirlet is an old wine. It's presumably Altohton and indigenous in Moslovin and around 100 hectares maybe even less. In my wines are not so much of a yield. I have a lower yield. I do organic in the vineyard. Kosovic has had some tough luck with hail on the recent vintages but 2017 and 2018 look promising. We hope to come back and see a 2017 version of the Skirlet Selexia. It's strawberry time during the spring in this part of Croatia so we stopped for a basket on our way to life-class Terme Sveti Martin. It's the only four-star hotel in the area. The property also features thermal pools, a spa and a golf course. It conveniently sits in the heart of the Medjomurri region of the uplands. It's an area famous for aromatic white grapes. It looks like one of those bali, well those wellness resort in Bali. I'm very excited. The hotel also has a water park but we don't have time to play. We're off to our first stop, the Hajjish farm and winery. The farm is famous for its fresh products made from apples including juices, cider and dried chips. Tatiana takes us to the cooler which reminds me of my family farm back home. She's also busy preparing batches of dried apple chips. We had some in the hotel and we're immediately addicted. These are sweet, tart and very delicious. Tatiana also produces several fresh white wines. Our personal favorite is their semi-sweet made from Travner, more commonly known as Gevirtstramina. Oh my goodness! Favorite place! We're hungry so we head to the nearby town of Cekovitz, to the restaurant Manduoka. There's a branch in Zagreb and also one in Istria. We adore the one in Zagreb and want to give this one a chance since the head chef Marco Palfi actually cooks here. These are not franchises. We are not a franchise because every restaurant is an entity of its own. We modify the food and the philosophy to the place where we are. So in Zagreb you will have a strong street food menu. In Umag it's going to be a sort of sea food grilled meat summer food and here in chocolates we are defined as a bistro and wine bar. We want to do bistro food so food that is not pretentious, that it's not too complicated. Salt, pepper, a little bit of cheese and what you have on top is a chicharron, also local for this. A little bit of duck paté and risotto. Now Shireen is all buttered up. This is one of my favorite. It's a palm puree, just mixed with nettle puree and then a few white asparagus. The wine list is pretty darn good for this part of Croatia as well. All the wines that we have were tasted and picked. So we don't have anything that's here by chance. Grilled asparagus, I'm sorry if you didn't want to know. Beef can be generic and boring at times but here it's prepared well. I'm really glad it's not very flavorful, I like the texture. A little bit of dessert and we're stuffed. Is it bedtime yet? I'm done with those plates. The next morning we take on some fresh local products for breakfast at the hotel such as deer satchas, paprika, infused cheese and apple jam before heading to the spa. Are you excited? The spa at Sventy Martin contains four different types of saunas in an ice cave. The real highlight of the property is the temple of life. It's pools filled with naturally occurring thermo-mineral waters. The complex look modern but the pools of thermal water have existed here for many years. The waters in the air were discovered in 1911 when a local company was drilling for oil. How did you like your spa day in mineral water? The next day we head to the Zagoria area to visit one of Croatia's most awarded wineries. In Zagoria almost everyone produces their own table wine. So when Boris Drenski decided that he wanted to make ice and other late harvest sweet wines, everyone thought he was crazy. From these steep slopes Boris cultivates grapes like Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Riesling and Graševina for his award-winning wines. He is crazy about ice wine and sometimes waits until January to pick the grapes. His boutique winery, Bodrin, only produces sweet wine. They're packaged in small format bottles and can be found in the best restaurants throughout the country. These wines are sweet and never feel too sappy on the palate because of the bright acidity. I fell in love with Bodrin wines upon first sip. But Sharin hasn't always been so convinced. This visit gives her a change of heart. This is a little bit different from the ref that we try. It's much more herbal in style. I get a sense of like ginseng, much more of the root and aroma. It has very full weight in the mouth and it's very tightly coined. Most like when you are drinking it, you feel like a ball is rolling across your mouth, that kind of texture. And also something very interesting is it has a sense of spiciness on the finish, really subtle spiciness. So by the end of the finish, I get like melons, some kind of apricot kicking in. So I'm going to pair it with the rock melon to see how it tastes like. When Boris first started, he sent his wines to the canter where they competed against other great predicate wines from around the world, including Austrian Germany. In 2011, he won a regional trophy in the sweet wine category. Boris makes wine part time and his cellar is small and humble. These wines are can't miss for visitors to Croatia with sweet teeth. Just north of Zagreb, high on the hill is the Bolfen winery and guest house. It's a beautiful, quiet place overlooking the surrounding hills. Tomaslav Bolfen has 20 hectares of vineyards which are certified organic. He also uses biodynamic preparation in the vineyard. Bolfen was one of the first high quality producers to emerge in the uplands after Croatian independence in the 90s. The winery has made a name for itself by producing high quality wines at modest prices. We're especially fond of the Riesling and White Blends. The sparkling wines of Bolfen are also good, in addition to Pinot Noir, which Tomaslav wants to focus more on. When it comes to farming, Tomaslav feels very strongly about ecological production. I find the echo way of doing agriculture the only way, which is compatible to the humankind. And I see it like a fight for the honesty, for the health and like a political strength. I think that echo way is the only way. Otherwise, we are going to ruin the nature and we will be in the planet just with the sand. I wanted to show myself first that it is possible and it is possible. The Bolfen winery in guesthouse also has a restaurant with locally sourced and organic produce paired of course with Bolfen wines. We start out with a few soups. I think it's a local vegetable. Wow. It's really good. Why is it good? Serena is crazy about French onion soup, which today the restaurant has. Next we have some veal with strucli, a local type of pasta, in addition to roasted duck and potatoes. Good. It tastes like ranch food, you know, something that you can't come to think of. Some dessert and we are happy, well fed and ready for an afternoon nap, something that shouldn't be too difficult with views like this. The uplands is one of the upstart regions in Croatia. Some of the best values of the country come from this area. There are numerous small producers doing fantastic work here, but unfortunately our time in the area is up. Hopefully more people make a short trek up to this wonderful region and make their own discoveries.