Maximo Brut 2023 of the Kutjevo winery is the best sparkling wine from this year's evaluation within the Graševina Festival in Kutjevo. Graševina Bonum usu of the Antun Horvat Vocational School from Đakovo was declared the champion of the 2025 vintage in the category of dry wines, and the first dry from the 2024-2021 harvest is Graševina Dekan 2024 of the Trs agricultural cooperative from Ilok. Kutjevo again won the award for the best predicate wine. This is Graševina Ice Wine 2018. In addition to the additional four big golds, 39 gold diplomas were also awarded to the best Graševina wines.
The awards were presented as part of the Graševina Night Garden event in the atrium of Kutjevo Castle. This was followed by a promenade tasting of the awarded and other wines with a three-course gastronomic offer prepared according to the wines, and then socializing under the stars with a musical program by DJ Andy Boy. The party in the castle was preceded by the presentation of nine Graševinas of different styles at the Galić winery.
As many countries, as many names
It is the most important variety in the countries that were part of the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In the area from Italian Lombardy to Romania, through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it is currently planted on about 25,000 hectares, and there are about 5,000 more in other parts of Europe and the world. For comparison, there are about 200,000 hectares of Chardonnay, 130,000 hectares of Sauvignon, and about 50,000 hectares of Rhine Riesling. However, Graševina is less noticeable because almost every country in which it grows has its own name, said Saša Špiranec, presenting the variety.
Grašica, grašac, olaszrizling, welschriesling, ryzling vlašsky, rizlink vlašský, vlašák, riesling italico or laški riesling, are some of the names of the variety that sommelier Monika Neral called the noblest in Croatia just before they began presenting four pairs of Graševina wines and then one more. The sparkling wine Enosophia brut 2025 opened the tasting. It was produced using the charmat method, so the second fermentation was in tanks, it costs eight euros, and 130,000 liters of it are produced in Feričanci per year.
They have sugar, but they are not sweet
There are 10.5 grams of residual sugar per liter, and the pronounced acids have very nicely protected it from unwanted sweetness. The classic Maximo brut sparkling wine from the Kutjevo winery nominally is also sweeter. The second fermentation was in the bottle, it was then aged in it for 12 months on a fine lees, and its taste, before being prepared for the market, was rounded off by the addition of ice-harvested Graševina. The one that was the best-rated sweet wine of this year's Graševina Festival.
The youth of this variety was represented by Graševina 2025 from the Royal Hill winery from Aljmaš in the Danube region and Graševina Selekcija 2025 from the Markota family from Pleternica. These are typical light and refreshing summer wines. The first showed a gentle sweetness, so it will go well with slightly spicy light meat from a barbecue, and the second is a typical fine Slavonian Graševina that has been nurtured in stainless steel, so it brought everything it has from the vineyard: at first it refreshes, then it invigorates.
They are wide, they are deep...
A hundred years wide. A thousand summers deep, are the lines from a Mak Dizdar's poem Modra rijeka (Blue River), as if he knew that a wide and deep wine would be a match for the third series of Graševinas. Graševina Mitrovac 2023 from the Kutjevo winery Krauthaker spread beautifully, but retained its freshness and very pleasant bitterness. Graševina Tradition 2017 Grand Selection from Jasna Antunović from Dalj also spread, and at the same time deepened. Like the Danube in Dalj, where the winery is located, about a hundred meters from the great river.
The fourth pair was very homely: Graševina 2025. Adžić and Graševina 2024. Galić are from Kutjevo and with a gentle sweetness. It can be distracting when the wines are drunk alone, but as such they are extremely gastronomic and go well with mildly spicy dishes. The number nine, however, in numerology and symbolism, signifies the end of a cycle, so the ninth wine also closed the circle of beautiful tasting. It was Graševina Ledena berbe 2018 from the Kutjevo winery Perak.
Women like when men drink them
Minus seven is the highest temperature at which grapes can be picked and pressed for ice wine. It is often too sweet for even the most common sweet dishes, so it goes well with foie gras, the best very ripe cheeses and the most intimate company. Some say that women are happy when men drink it, and vice versa.
Photos: Ivana Pranjić/Cork Croatia