Kabola was the first in Croatia to age wine in an amphora. It was a 2003 Malvazija. Two years later, he produced, by his own words, the first truly good amphora-aged Malvazija, followed by the 2006 and 2007 vintages, each better than the last.
He surprised the world's best sommeliers
It wasn't easy with those wines. People didn't want to drink them, and we couldn't even get a sales permit. They have an intense color and aren't perfectly clear. The authorities couldn't forgive us for that, yet now we’re even exporting them to Canada, Marino recalls.
News of his amphora-aged wines spread throughout the wine world in March 2019. At the World Sommelier Championship in Antwerp, three finalists were tasked with identifying four wines served to them in glasses. That Malvazija was among them. They failed to identify it, which is hardly surprising. After all, the question is where they would have even had the chance to taste it.
The 2019 harvest is in full swing
By local standards, the Kabola winery is not small, yet Croatia is a small wine-producing country on a global scale, and few sommeliers would expect to see Croatian wines at a world championship. A few months later, in a review of Croatian and Slovenian wines, critics from the British magazine Decanter awarded Kabola’s 2015 Amphora with 95 out of a possible 100 points.
In the production of amphora wines, grape skins soak in their own juice for months, and pressing takes place only in the spring. Afterward, the wines age for at least a year in large wooden barrels before maturing in the bottle. Tasting the 2009 Amphora taught us that this is a crucial stage in the wine's development: it is currently at its peak and will remain so.
Long in the making, long-lasting
It has achieved perfect balance and retains its freshness. There is simply no foreseeable reason why its quality would decline over the next few years. Wines like this take a long time to develop, and they are built to last. Buried clay amphorae provide an excellent environment for maturing wine because external influences are kept to a minimum.
He experimented with white grape maceration even before using amphorae. He says that was how he practiced. He continues to experiment today and sells these wines under the Unica label. There are eight buried amphorae next to the winery, and he plans to move them into the cellar, where there will eventually be twenty-four.
Mature RE Sparkling Wine
He was also the first to age Teran in an amphora—specifically the 2015 vintage—and the wine is excellent. His RE sparkling wine, made from Malvazija, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir, is also very, very good. It is produced using the traditional (Champagne) method and was aged on the lees for three and a half years following the second fermentation in the bottle.
The Dolce wine, made from Momjan Muscat, was captivating, as was, even more so, a little cellar secret: Muscat aged in an amphora. He said there was no need to write about it yet, but the wine, still in the barrel, holds such potential that it is bound to be written about extensively. In two, three, or four years' time... The Markežić family has been growing vines and producing wine since 1891. They are, therefore, celebrating the winery's 130th anniversary.
Muscat from 1891.
There are still a few bottles of Momjan Muscat from 1891 in the cellar, but we established the Kabola wine brand, which is an old family nickname, in 1981. That was when my father began bottling wines for the restaurant in Kremenje, near Momjan, which we had opened a few years earlier. We did excellent business thanks to middle-class Italians. High-end dining in Italy was too expensive for them, whereas here they got the same quality for less money, says Marino.
The world's largest white truffle was served at that restaurant. It weighed 1.31 kilograms and was found by Giancarlo Zigante and his dog Diana in November 1999. Marino purchased it, and his team prepared and served it to the guests. The giant white truffle also earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The wine drove him out of the restaurant
Wine production required more and more time and Marino devoted himself to it. He bought an old house that had been abandoned for 40 years, renovated it and turned it into a winery. The surrounding farm buildings could not be saved, but he rebuilt them in the old way, so that you can't even see the difference.
At Kabola, it is evident that the climates in the vineyard, the cellar, and even the tasting room suit him well. He seems to be growing younger, yet the legendary remark he once made to me remains as relevant as ever: When I was younger, I enjoyed young, fresh wines and loved younger women. Now, I love more mature women and complex wines!