Škrlet is the first Croatian variety with registered clones. Back in 2000, a team of Croatian experts examined 15,000 vines. They selected 80 clones, narrowed the selection down to 22, and then to 12. Those 12 passed the strictest health tests at the Vine Institute in Geisenheim, Germany and the Australian Virology Laboratory in Adelaide, and were planted in the pre-mother plantation in 2008.
Three clones chozen out of 15,000 vines
Two years later, they chose eight and planted them in Marko Miklaužić's experimental vineyard in Repušnica. Among them, three proved to be the best and in 2015 they were reported to the Institute for Nursery in Osijek, and Moslavina winemakers started making wines from them for the market.
That is how the clonal selection of Škrlet unfolded. By 2017, superior planting stock and fresh perspectives demonstrated that Škrlet had a bright future. A blind tasting of nine wines at the time revealed the existence of three, or perhaps even four, distinct visions for the variety.
Semi-dry wine are not the best choice
The first vision was traditional: a wine with residual sugar and a lack of pronounced acidity. Winemakers producing this style of Škrlet claimed their customers loved it and that it sold easily. While that is a strong argument, it was clear even nine years ago that a cloying style was not the path to getting the wine into top-tier restaurants, which is precisely where Škrlet belongs.
The second style consisted of wines with a few grams of residual sugar but also more pronounced acidity, a Mosel-Riesling style, one might say, where sweetness is refined by fine acidity. A Škrlet with six grams of sugar and 6.2 grams of acidity per liter was tasty, but that is a path for the risk-averse. The third style is uncompromising. We could call it the Palatinate style, after the German region known for its love of dry Rieslings.
Fruitiness provides relish, acidity freshness
These are Škrlet wines with no residual sugar, where fruitiness provides sweetness and pleasant acidity offers freshness. The comparison between the modest Škrlet and the great Riesling is no coincidence; the variety holds immense potential, and this third path, or way to improve, needs to be turned into a highway that carries Škrlet out into the world. Or brings the world to Croatia, specifically to Moslavina.
In recent years, winemakers have also produced amber wines from the Škrlet variety. These can be described as white wines with the soul of a red, as the grape skins macerate in the must for weeks or months. This gives the wine a deeper color and allows it to retain numerous compounds that would not have time to migrate from the skins to the wine during faster processing methods.
It contains substances that slow down aging
Among these are polyphenols, antioxidants that benefit both the stability and shelf-life of the wine and the health of those who drink it. Since oxidation is essentially a form of aging, antioxidants effectively prolong youthfulness. Research into its polyphenol composition conducted about a decade ago revealed that Škrlet is also rich in terpenes, the compounds primarily responsible for the aromatic profiles of Muscat and Traminer wines. Consequently, Škrlet can even exhibit notes of rose..
Young Škrlet wines, those from the previous year's harvest, pair excellently with most freshwater fish dishes. Thanks to their subtle sweetness, they even go well with fiš paprikaš (spicy fish stew). Someone once aptly wrote that seafood and fish swim better in Škrlet than in the sea, though this does not apply to oily fish.
Škrlet has its own street
Škrlet also pairs beautifully with white meat dishes, cheese štrukli, a traditional dish made of thin, hand-stretched dough filled with various fillings, most commonly cheese. Good pairings are savory strudels, pasta with white sauces, and even light-colored roasts like suckling pig. It can be served with sushi, and in the summer, it makes a delightful companion to sparkling mineral water in the glass. There is even a Škrlet Street that winds down from Moslavina Mountain toward the village of Voloder.
Škrlet is also excellent for producing sparkling wines, and it has even displaced the major global variety known as Moslavac from the vineyards of Moslavina. Moslavac is also called pušipel or šipon; our Hungarian neighbors refer to it as som or szigeti, while its most common international name is Furmint. It is the primary variety used to produce the renowned Hungarian Tokaji wines, which is why the French call it Tokay. In Croatia, the winemakers of Međimurje have dedicated themselves to Moslavac or pušipel, as it is known there.
Read also the story about the 18th-anniversary celebration of the Pušipel brand.