Nova Gradiška is located in the western part of Posavina Slavonia at a position where the vast and fertile Posavina plain merges with the marginal slopes of Psunj. At first it can be concluded that this is an ideal terrain for viticulture.
Nova Gradiška vineyards it is one of the ten vineyards of the Slavonia wine subregion, and in addition to the area of Nova Gradiška itself, it also includes the area of ten neighboring municipalities. Novogradiška vineyards are not as well known as some other Slavonian vineyards such as Kutjevo, Orahovac, Đakovo, Daruvar or Feričane, primarily due to the fact that these vineyards have never had a large winery that would be a generator of wine development in the whole region.
However, recently more and more small family wineries from that area are making significant strides in terms of quality, diversification of offerings, marketing visibility and fusion of winemaking with tourism, which the wider wine audience could detect for the first time on the penultimate or last pre-pandemic festival of wine, delicacies and pleasant living WineOS where they presented themselves Kraljić winery from Rešetar and OPG Radić from Vrbova near Stari Petrovo Selo.
The key thing for branding destinations, including wine ones, are manifestations, and on Saturday, May 21, it was held for the second time at Cvjetni Square in Novi Grad NG wine fest “Golden Vine” organized by the association "Novogradiška Fair" and Qvad Club Lotus, which was held in parallel with the fifth agricultural - craft fair and the fifth flower fair NG Flora fest. As the secretary of the association "Novogradiška Fair" Sandra Sremac Dosegović points out, the goal of these events is to make it easier for participants to establish new contacts, find new business partners and customers, and provide direct access to exchange information about products and services.
When we talk about Novi Grad wines, it should be pointed out that a good part of them can be bought in one place, and that place is Slavonian shop which is located in Ulica slavonskih graničara, at house number 1, and in addition to wine, you can also buy other food products, and souvenirs from the area.
It arrived at the wine evaluation as part of the NG wine fest more than a hundred wine samples from Slavonia & Baranja, other parts of Croatia, but also from neighboring countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia. Wines from Italy, Northern Macedonia, Germany, France, Spain and Argentina were also evaluated. The director of the Novi Grad Fair, Slavko Sremac, did not hide his satisfaction with that fact.
The jury came to the conclusion that twenty-one samples deserve a gold medal, of which most gold medals, six of them went to Baranja. Three gold medals from the NG wine fest ended in the Croatian part, and three in the Hungarian part of Baranja. Wine house Planina from Mohács whose founder and owner Zoltán Horváth recently also in the role of manager of the Pinkert winery in Suza she got the gold for her own cabernet franc from 2019 years, winery Attila Gere from Villány for his sauvignon blanc from 2021. years, and the winery Gabor axis, also from Villány for his Cuvée from 2017.
Kalazić Winery won gold for its 2018 chardonnay, and Kusić Winery for its 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon. The cabernet franc of the Josić winery from 2018, which won 89,33 points, was declared the champion of the festival. Five gold medals each went to the Srijem and Kutjevo vineyards, one gold medal each to Moslavina, Italy and Argentina, and two gold medals were won by domicile wineries from the Novi Grad vineyards; wineries Hoborka from Nova Gradiška and Stanal doo. for his 2021 graševina. The award for the most beautiful design of the wine bottle label was won by the winery "Vrt" from Riđica, and chokeberry wine of the Radić family farm from Vrbova was proclaimed the best dessert wine. It was declared the best wine in the "rosé" category Cuvée rosé winery Zajec from Zmajevac. Visitors could also enjoy a delicious vineyard stew, and of course, after the official award ceremony, there was also a real Slavonian celebration with tambourines and the best-rated wines.
Photographs: Mario Jukic (Hedonism tourism)
