 Hello, hello, hello, I'm Matthew Horky 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 re-tour 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! Učka Tunnel connects mainland Croatia to Istria. Istria is a heart-shaped peninsula that's changed hands many times in the last 100 years. During this time, it's been part of Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia, and now Croatia. Thanks to its food and wine, Istria has been dubbed the New Tuscany. The region is full of medieval hilltop villages and the atmosphere feels undeniably Italian. The region is renowned for its top-notch olive oil, and the wine industry is together focused on leading the quality revolution in Croatia. Our first stop is Domain Kokoliko. It's the brainchild of Croatian Jackie Marovac and Frenchman Olivier Erzbischoff. They bought an old stone house in the center of Gratice, and today they invited us over to taste the new vintages. After a brief tour of their hometown, they start opening bottles. The view from their backyard is breathtakingly beautiful. Olivier is a retired medical doctor. He worked in different cellars throughout Burgundy learning how to make wine. When he came to Croatia, he wasn't pleased with the chardonnay that was available and started to make his own. Well, I think that we came here to try to do chardonnay a bit better than the basic chardonnay you can find some years ago. And the idea was to do something which is a French way of making chardonnay but with Croatian grapes. And why did you and Jackie decide to make wine here because you were living in France before? Well, first of all, you are always following the wish of your wife and she's Croatian. In addition to their excellent Balagra Grand Cru Chardonnay, Coquelaco also produces several Malvasia-based wines. In addition to a red blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Tehran, dreamt up by Jackie. I think I'm more interested in the red as well. I mean, Olivier is a great white wine expert. But after many years in Chile, I really appreciate a good red. And so Nomad was kind of my little Austrian baby. It's late in the day so after our visit we head to a local favorite, Canoba Morgan. It's located just outside the village of Bouillet and boasts beautiful views of Northwest Istria. This eatery isn't a totally undiscovered gem. It's listed in the Michelin Guide. It's owned by a family who's fond of hunting and there's plenty of game meats available. There's the goat cheese and some dry tomato and a bit of asparagus. However, it's wild asparagus season so we give the cream soup a try. Wow, queen. I like it a lot. Next up, homemade gnocchi and a local goulash. It's paired with a local red blend from famous wine producer Degrassi. Good gnocchi to me has to be like the texture of a soft, high quality gummy bear. It has to be like soft but you know with bounciness. I would like it to be a little bit more pillowy or fluffy but this is to me like beef-plus quality, really good. For the finale, we sampled a local Austrian beef called Baschgarten. What do you think about the pairing? Fantastic. Shereen is very pleased with the meal. In the morning, we head to the tourist town of Motovon. We have an appointment with fucking winery but we experience a small bump in the road. So the road to Motovon is blocked. It's annoying. We're going to fucking winery and we have to go all the way around on this dirt road. Not the most comfortable driving in our rental car. Marco fucking is a new guy on the Austrian wine scene. He's made ways with his full body Malvasias and rich Terrans. I think the most important thing is that the people like the wines. It's written the best young Terrans. This past year he won a gold medal at the canter for his vibrant Acacia aged Malvasia named La Prima. We sample the new vintages from his barrel room. Marco has beautiful photos of his family all over the cellar which adds a warm touch. Next we head to his vineyards. Many producers in Austria talk about the excellent position of Marco's vineyards. The Mirna River creates a unique microclimate around Motovon. Marco isn't shy about the grapes that Austrian producers should focus on. That is for sure Malvasia and Terran. And what are you looking for? When you're making those wines and vinifying them what characteristics are you looking to produce in those grapes? The body, the full body of the Malvasia. I want to make a natural style of Malvasia like it is my La Prima. I hope in the future that we'll be only Malvasias without filtering natural style wines and I hope I will do only like that. Marco's success has come quickly and he's very candid about how fast everything has happened. When you started were you expecting? No, I wasn't expecting. It was like a hobby to me but now it's a serious thing. And I'm very happy about that. Me and all my family we are living from this and it's a big thing now for us. We are giving all our lives to the ground, to the vineyard and I can say that the vineyard is giving back us all the best that he can. Marco Fakken also owns a Canova on the top of Motovon. It's a simple eatery but they do have fresh black truffles and wild asparagus. The Canova caters to the large volume of tourists that make the trek up to the top of this hilltile. We have the eggs with fresh asparagus. We call it in great Chinese history, frittaya. This kind of food and the fresh asparagus is from this morning collected from the wood. It's 100% wild and the best taste you can have. Then we have the Istrian ham or Istarski poshut inside. The second thing you have the omelette with black truffles. This truffle that you see it's the first from this season. We also try some delicious deep fried Istrian dessert that resembles doughnut holes. It was a meal of father's health. The day is winding down so we have to leave Motovon. On our way out we pass the construction site of Rosinich Hotel. This is another one of our favorite producers but the hotel is not finished yet so we'll have to wait until next year to revisit. The next day we arrive at our favorite producer in Croatia and possibly one of our favorite producers in the entire world, Klai Winery. Giorgio Klai owned a successful restaurant in nearby Trieste, Italy. After leaving the business he established his winery in Buje. He farms organically and produces wines with no additives and uses wild yeast for fermentation. He's a legend in Istria and the natural wine world. He's often been dubbed the godfather of Istria. His orange wines Svetiakov Malvazia and red wine Brombonero Refosch are regarded as two of Croatia's top wines. Klai also produces their own olive oil which is spicy and rich. The tasting room is modern, minimalistic, and coupled with the view it's a great atmosphere to taste wine. As Giorgio's gotten older he's needed help in the cellar so he's reached out to fellow natural winemaker Dimitri Brecevic to help him make the wines. Well actually Klai wines are really really specific styles, specific character. Giorgio always has this very specific way of winemaking and also winery since the beginning. So the most important thing of course is the maceration if you are talking about the white which was always part of the history of the winery. And the other thing is that the wines are really like high structure, really don't eat the vineyard with very low yields etc for aging. So if that's wine you can drink after 10 years, 15 years, maybe 20 we hope. So that's all process, that's really the philosophy of winemaking. So now that you've been with Giorgio Klai for about 11 years over the time that you worked with him in terms of the style and the kind of version that your wines want to achieve how has it changed over time? Well actually you know this cooperation so as I said it's almost 11 years now but it used to be more like friendship and some kind of exchange of knowledge. Now since 3 years it's much more and much more because I'm really engaged now in the winery. The thing is that I'm not here to change the wine for Giorgio Klai and he's not there to change the style of Piquentum. The thing is about how we can help ourselves. So here I'm really here to help Giorgio, I'm just his hands and his legs etc etc and to help him to push this story further. After tasting the new vintages in the cellar with Dimitri, Giorgio joins us during the evening. He's in a jovial mood that night and opens an older vintage of Brambanero. It's one of Shereen's favorite wines from all of ex-Yugoslavia. It's a kind of wine even if it's big or extracted, you can drink a whole night and sometimes there's no explanation. It's just like pizza. A good pizza you can eat 15 inches all by yourself. A bad pizza, you eat two slices and you're bloated and you're full and you don't feel good. Giorgio's good mood continues and he opens an older vintage of his orange wine Otocento Biele in addition to a taran that isn't in production anymore, the Bastavica Taran. Giorgio loves his own wines and he feels very fondly of the Bastavica. It's a fantastic wine that I'm watching all night. I'm happy with it. One of the happiest there is in my life. I'm drinking exactly the kind of stuff that I like and I can drink all night. And it doesn't even get me though, it just makes me happy and makes me happy. It's not often that Giorgio opens these wines. As the night winds down we feel extremely lucky. What a great start to our trip in Istria. In the next episode of Azotic Wine Travel, we put a spotlight on Malvasia Istasca, a native white wine grape from Istria. Stephen Spurier, decanter's consultant editor and organizer of the 1976 Judgment of Paris will also have a guest appearance in the next episode. If you would like to learn more about Croatian and Croatian wine, check out our book Cracking Croatian Wine, A Visitor Friendly Guide.