 Hello, hello, hello, 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 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! Croatia is a resort town on the west coast of Istria. Many families flock here for the laid-back atmosphere in crystal clear water. We're not here for the beaches though. We're here to catch some seafood. And Sherin is ecstatic. Our guide for the day is our friend Milan Padinski. He's the head wine maker at Vina Laguna and is a former Croatian spearfishing champion. He's offered to catch us some raw and uber fresh selfish. Milan starts us off easy with some sea urchin. Next, some local seashells. The toughest you can find in the sea. And it's strong. Mmm. Yeah, it's quite an unfamiliar flavor. I mean you still get a saltiness of the sea but it's almost like you have some kind of upsuit or something. But I really really like the texture. I like the stock. Oh, it's bitter. What is this? Sea egg. And you can see why it's called sea egg. Not everything is sweet and delicious though. That's a funny one. And it's considered for the easy egg because it's high in your body. That's funny. You eat it. Vina Laguna keeps Milan busy but he still manages to come out to the sea on a regular basis. After the morning on the boat, Milan and his wife Ivana invite us to their home for a seafood feast. Some local clams. Fresh prawn for risotto. Lobster. And more sea urchin. Ooh, it smells good. We pair the first few dishes with the reserve wines from Vina Laguna. The winery is one of the largest in the country but don't let that fool you. Thanks to Milan they pump out some serious wines. The Vizionata Malvasia Reserva is considered to be one of the best fresh Malvasias in Istria. And it's showing beautifully on this day. They're grilling the lobster, sea bream and a local codfish. In Croatia, fresh fish is prepared with as little ingredients as possible. It's all about the freshness and the flavor of the fish. The first dish up is the lobster and it takes shireen by surprise. It's soft and it's really sweet and it's really salty. I don't know, it's none of the lobster that I had before. And because of the preparation, you know, we grilled it so there's like a nice smokiness to it. It's fat and sweet enough, you don't need, you don't need butter, you don't need anything to eat with the lobster. Next up, the grilled fish with Swiss shard and potatoes, known in Croatia as Blitva. It's my favorite of the afternoon, but shireen keeps returning to the lobster. I think it's good, don't disturb me, I'm gonna eat. What? It's phenomenal! We're stuffed, but now it's on to the vineyard and winery tour. Istria is famous for its terra rosa and iron-rich red soil. And Milan tells us a little bit more about it. So the terra rosa is high in clay and it's not a deep soil, but there is a calcareous rock underneath which serves as a sponge. That sponge can take the water during the winter, but only if you allow that water to pass through the soil. Next Milan shows us the new vineyard in the village of Vizionata. It was just planted this year and will be 100% certified organic. It's adjacent to the current Vizionata vineyard, which is regarded as a prime spot for Malvasi Estarska. All the terra rosa data, you can crumble it to the smallest pieces. So terra rosa has a structure which is based on clay. This soil here has a structure which has to be or needs to be based on organic matter. This soil here cannot be treated as terra rosa. Here you need to do everything to preserve the organic matter in the soil. We know the wines of Vina Laguna well, but this is the first time we're seeing the winery. The company pumps out nearly 6 million liters of wine annually, but it uses only fruit from its own vineyards. All of the wines are good from top to bottom and are regular award winners at many worldwide competitions. We're big fans of the Fistigia Castello, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot and Syrah. After a full day out in the sun, eating and tasting were exhausted. But we have much more ahead of us. The next day we rejoined Dimitri Brecevich. In addition to working at Clay Winery, he also has a personal project and he's taking us up to the village of Verve to see it. Young people, the left, you know, the Rizno, young people, so much more here. Or if they are here, they don't work vinyards. It's a beautiful hilltop town with views over northeastern and central Istria. Dimitri gets terra rosa from these vineyards. It's only been a few weeks since the shoots have started, but they're already growing like weeds. And you see? It's like it's closing now. Next we're off to the village of Buzet to see Dimitri's cellar. His winery is called Pequentum. The building is an old water storage facility that's built into a hill. Today it's scorching outside, but inside the winery it's damp and cool. We have to experiment. If not, we don't move, you know. Pequentum wines are made with little to no intervention. They're formated with native yeasts. We're usually fond of the Pequentum Taran in Rfosko, but today we're very impressed by his Sveti Vital Malvazia. It's a reserve wine made from vines over 40 years of age. Verve is home to many abandoned vineyards, and it keeps a few secrets. Perhaps none better than Gerbat's winery. Adriano and his father Entune produce around 2,000 bottles of sparkling wine per year. The winery makes only three wines. Two from Taran and one from Malvazia. All are made using the traditional, aka Champinois method. The Rose Sparkler is the most popular wine from Gerbat's and it's extremely memorable. We first tasted it over a year ago on my birthday, and it's showing well today. First of all the bottles are really fine. And secondly, the wine maker said it's not perfect. I think I smell a little bit volatile acidity, but it tastes so good. It's so memorable, and there's a sense of place. When you taste the wine, you remember it. Second, you ask the question of where it comes from. You ask for the stories, and that's exactly what we felt when we first tasted this wine. And it just gets better and better. Or at least for me, I feel like I want to eat when I drink this wine, and it gets me happy really. Adriano doesn't speak English, but somehow we understand each other. He shows us everything in the winery. Don't expect any fancy riddling machines or a bottling line. Everything here is done entirely by hand. These wines are true gems in the history and wine scene. Don't expect to find them in any shop or restaurant though. You have to go to the source to taste them. We want to grab a quick snack, so we stop at a staple in the history and restaurant scene. Canoba Stardig Podrum. The interior is modern with plenty of natural light. The wine list is also fantastic, and the markups are modest by Croatian standards. Our light lunch includes an history and frittaya, or also known as an omelet. It's good because of typical prosciutto, they are using a smoke in this bag, so it adds more flavor and dimension to the egg. The egg is nicely flavored, they probably added a little bit of salt the very day. So yeah, I don't have to do any seasoning. And some tiramisu. The atmosphere and food are delicious, but shirin can't get over the fact that I stole her seafood risotto from the previous episode. You ate my risotto with a big piece of scampi on the top and I was like, what? Don't take it. Our last stop is Kabola Winery. It's a certified organic winery focusing on Malvazia, Taran and a local muscat called Muscat Momjanski. Today we're catching up with the owner Marino Markožić and his daughter Ana. Italian winemaking legend Jasko Gravner deeply influenced Kabola. So much so that Marino decided to buy several Georgian quaveries, also known as Amforas, to make wine in. He was the first in Croatia to adopt this ancient winemaking technique. We revisit the cellar which is full of old goodies before we start opening bottles. One wine that always impresses us from Kabola is the barrel-aged Malvazia Unica. You smell the oak first, but the oak has turned into this sweet cinnamon, really sweet spy's nose. And you get a little bit of the nutty nose as well. But a deeper sniffle could start getting a little bit of dry fruit. Next stop is the Malvazia Amfora, made in Georgian Quavery. It sits on the skins for seven months in the quavery before being racked in a large oak casks. It's a beauty. Just look at that color. The tasting is going great, but the Markožić family isn't done yet. They have a few more goodies to show us, including their new vintage of spicy olive oil. Next up, they're 2007 Turan, which is evolving beautifully and still tastes like a baby. What I like about each Turan is like some of our favorite San Giovese grape. It always is sweet cherry, especially for Turan as well. It's different. It's quintessentially from Istria, and it has high acidity. But when you get low pH because of the soil that it comes from and you have low alcohol, it gives you a very long life ahead of it to grow, to gain these savory notes, to get a bigger body. And I love that for older Turan, you feel that the body starts to get bigger. You get a little bit of the texture, and it's just like a meal in a glass. Kabola is another fantastic wine that shouldn't be missed on any visit through Northwest Istria. Sadly, our time in the region is done. We've revisited many friends, tasted a number of stunning wines, and stuffed ourselves with the cuisine. We feel very fond of Istria and hope to make it back soon. But now, we have to head south. In the upcoming episodes, we take you to Dalmation. 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.