A young Australian Croatian living in Zagreb, Ivan Srpek, started a wine import/export company, Bin 19, a couple of years ago.

He threw a party in Fabro Restaurant, on Murter Island, the other night to introduce one of his clients, Bartolović Wines, to the local restaurateurs.

Bartolović Wines is a new family run winery near Požega, in the northern Slavonia region. We have mentioned other wineries in the area in a previous Croatian wine story.

Fabro prepared a tasting menu to accompany the various wines. In order we had -

Graševina – Welsh Riesling
Pinot sivi - Pinot Grigio
Rajnski rizling – Rhine Riesling
Chardonnay
Pinot crni – Pinot Noir
Kaptol – a blend of Merlot, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon

Their Chardonnay was very interesting – the winemaker chooses to stir up the lees into the wine as it matures which gave it a creamy, vanilla aroma and mouth feel.

Ivan mentioned that the local edition of Playboy will be doing a large piece on the vineyard – good thing I buy it for the articles!

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