The end of January in Slavonia and Baranja was completely marked by wine; of that Dionysian nectar and the noblest elixir. Weekend after Vincennes The seventh WineOs was held - a fair of wine, delicacies and pleasant living, an event that no true hedonist should miss.
After last year's break, Osijek is again, for two days it became the wine center of Southeast Europe. It is a city located in the center of a kind of quadrangle formed by the capitals of Budapest, Belgrade, Sarajevo and Zagreb. Osijek is less than 300 kilometers away from each of them. It should be emphasized that only in the county where Osijek is the center there are four vineyards. Sixty kilometers from the city there are two vineyards belonging to the wine region of Slavonia - Đakovo and Feričanci, and only thirty kilometers from Osijek there are two vineyards from the wine region of Danube - Erdut and Wine Mother Baranja.
Due to its excellent geo-traffic position and the fact that it is surrounded on all sides by vineyards, Osijek is an excellent place for holding wine fairs, which was proved again by this seventh edition of WineOs. Visitors could in a two-day rhapsody of decent hedonism enjoy wines from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia, and from most wine-growing regions of Croatia, numerous wine workshops, and this year numerous cooking workshops were held.
The fair started on Friday at 15 pm, and a presentation was held fifteen minutes later activities of the Regional Competence Center of the Hospitality and Tourism School Osijek. The activities of the school and the RCC were presented by student Fabijan Hajba and his mentor Robertino Martinjak. In addition to regular vocational education programs, the CRC implements vocational training programs, lifelong learning, and various forms of formal and non-formal education. Within one of these programs, ten participants earned the title wine consultant / advisor in sommellerie at the Wine Academy Cafa Wine School from Bordeaux, which is just one of their contributions to the development of wine culture in Slavonia and Baranja.
And the tasting part of WineOs itself started out unexpectedly sweet. They say that mead is older than wine, so we just started with that crypto wine typing. Mederija Ferbežar from Vinkovci, in addition to the classic smuggler, has recently produced Melomel - mead with strawberry, cherry and vanilla. Very close to their stand was the ranch exhibition space Ramarin from Garčin. A year ago, I visited them and saw for myself that this is the most comprehensive tourist complex in Eastern Croatia. Then they announced that they were starting their own wine production, and at WineOs we tasted their Traminer from the optional berry harvest.
Ilok is the kingdom of Traminer, and a special experience of this variety of wine provides Traminac Rosamal from the 2015 Papak winery. That Traminer was declared the champion in the category of dry Traminers on last year’s Traminer Festival held in Principovac. Speaking of Croatia's easternmost vineyards, we should mention other Ilok wineries that performed at this year's WineOs. We tasted the Traminer of the Knezović winery, as well as a handful of Traminers from the main winery of the Ilok vineyards - Ilok cellars.
The agricultural cooperative TRS shone with a black blend C3 - carménère / cabernet franc / cabernet savignon, Krešić winery from the Ilok suburb of Šarengrad attracted attention, among other things, with its rosé wine Patrice rosé,which was declared the best rosé wine at last year's Vinkovci festival of ham, brandy and kulen wines. This rosé was created by a combination of Pinot Gris, Cabernet Sauvignon and Franconian. Rosé Domagoj Buhač encountered the standard good reactions of a predominantly female audience.
The Neštin and Ljuba border crossings lead from Ilok to the Vojvodina part of Srijem. Winery "Three borders and a cloud" is located in Neštin and at this year's WineOs they presented themselves with many great wines. Bigfoot is one hundred percent chardonnay, Pagan is dry rose with 13.5% alcohol and 3 g of unfermented sugar made from three varieties of wine - Cabernet Sauvignon 60% / Vranac 30% / Muscat Hamburg 10%, and Vagabundo is a Cabernet Sauvignon with a ten percent admixture of Vranac. Neštin is located west of Ilok, and Ljuba south.
The first place after Ljuba is Erdevik from where the winery of the same name came to WineOs. Geronimo is their graševina, ie white grašac until recently in Serbia called Italian Riesling. Our pink is their merlot-based rosé with small admixtures of cabernet sauvignon, a Trianon their black cuvée based on merlot, cabernet sauvignon and syrah.
Temporary consolation for missed enjoyment sit down I found the code heritage winery Tonkovic which, unlike previous wineries, does not come from Srijem, but from the Bačka part of Vojvodina, more precisely from Palić near Subotica, which successfully revitalized another indigenous variety that was once widely represented in Pannonia - Kadarka. All participants have the opportunity to enjoy their excellent shots wine marathon in Palić.
After the wineries from Srijem, let's say a few words about the exhibitors at WineOs from the other two Croatian vineyards that belong to the wine-growing region of the Danube region. Erdut vineyards among other things, they presented their excellent Meandar sparkling wine, White and black, winery Antunović from Dalj delighted me with its white blend Jubilee reserve grand selection which combines green silvanac, graševina and chardonnay from different years of harvest. Young and agile winery Royal hill estate based in Aljmaš presented itself with its labels Black white i Black pinot rose.
I met their wines for the first time at last year's Zagreb Vinart grand tasting in outlet variant and delighted because it is no small thing that a winery that is just beginning its market story and starts with two labels chooses as one of them for our occasion a bit extravagant and unusual black white - white wine produced from a red variety pinot noir. At their stand, there were also cold-pressed oils of almonds, hemp, flax, hazelnuts and sunflowers from the sister company BB Oil from Bijelo Brdo. Let's mention here and Siber winery which was the first in the Erdut vineyard to market sparkling wine, and in my opinion their most intriguing wine is Sibernet obtained by flavoring Cabernet Sauvignon, fortified with cherry liqueur alcohol and additionally spiced with cinnamon, cloves, anise and black peppercorns.
As for the Wine Mother - Baranja, I was delighted pinot noir Kalazić winery from 2012, then grand cuvèe limited edition / ciconia nigra superior Josić winery from 2018; blend of syrah, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot. Svijetli dvori winery from Karanak there are excellent wines, and if there is one thing that needs to be singled out, it is Graševina Jarčevo brdo and Cabernet Sauvignon, which was the dominant ingredient in one of the best black Baranja blends I have ever tasted.
Oliver Novački called it Attila the Whip of God and made it in a very small amount, especially for his brother-in-law. I tasted that wine more than two years ago, during the visit of Baranja winemakers to the Kutjevo vineyards and that event is permanently etched in the memory of the winegrower. Let's hope that the Svijetli dvori winery will release it in the near future vintage Attila, second edition.
Next to the Svijetli dvori winery was the Pinkert winery. I haven't tasted any of their wines on this issue of WineOs because I got a full insight into what they do and prepare a week before at their winery, and the wines are best tasted where they mature, in the cellar. That's why I am intermezzo between the two days of the festival he used an eighty-kilometer cycling trip around Baranja and a visit to the wine mecca of southern Hungary - Villány.
Of course, winemakers from the Vilan and Šiklo vineyards also took part in WineOs (Villány - Siklósi borvidek), and I tasted REDy - a blend made by a number of wineries from that vineyard, the backbone of which is Portuguese. I tasted it REDy winery Bibor birtok from Šikloš, because I still didn't have that much time to go by bike (s) to Šikloš. At the stand Kolar winery we also met Samir Nadj, the good spirit of Baranja winemaking who is his own winemaker know-how implemented in three Baranja wineries; Kalazić, Kolar and Zlatno brdo. She also performed at the fair Bećaruša winery from Gajić.
When we talk about Baranja, we must certainly mention the premiere performance at WineOs of the new winery Golden Hill from Zmajevac. They offer top quality Graševina from 2018 and 2020, optional vintage Pinot Gris from 2020, Cabernet Sauvignon from 2017, late harvest of the same variety from 2015, and their most intriguing wine is Gold cuvée from 2020. It is a blend of Rhine Riesling, Chardonnay aged in ancient Slavonian oak barrels, the selection of Pinot Gris and Traminer selection of berries.
The owner of the young and agile winery Goran Matijević tells us about big plans for the future, and the wines themselves were presented in detail by the head of the Zmajevac wine shop and secretary of the Baranja Zmajevac winegrowers' association Gabriella Gerštmajer. President of this agile association which has so far organized a whole series events is the youngest offspring of the Baranja wine dynasty Gerštmajer - Ivan Gerštmajer Zelember.
She represented the Đakovo vineyards Apostol winery from Trnava, one of the participating wineries of the first Golden wine weekend held in early October last year, and Feričanačko vineyards represented Enosophia, until recently known to the wine public as Feravino. Bruketa & Žinić & Gray are responsible for the rebranding, so Grassec and Francesca are no more, but they are here Today white i Nice to see you!
Of course, so much wine had to be accompanied by food. The first day of the festival cooking show they had Tomica Đukić and Igor Vlatković. Last month and year I saw off with a great New Year's Eve dinner in directed by chef Tomica Đukić, and four weeks later I again had the honor of enjoying his delicacies at WineOs, this time the theme was river fish. After that, the chef of the Citadela restaurant from Vardarac, Igor Vlatković, prepared a perklet from Podolca. It is a dish that has become a real hit in the national context, and I had the opportunity to enjoy it for the first time on the day of the presentation of the illustrated gastro guide "Magical gastro story of Baranja", as the first of a series of gastro bloggers and journalists who were delighted with this specialty and who paid due media attention to this delicacy.
The next day they performed on the cooking show stage Sasa Vojnovic, chef of the Lug hotel restaurant, Mateo Mekovic, chef of the Waldinger restaurant and Nebojsa Rajkovic, chef of the Chingi Lingi Chard restaurant. They prepared specialties from river fish, black pigs and game.
As for the exhibitor, it should be mentioned OPG Novosel from Gata near Belišće with its cured meat products, butcher's craft Bođirković from Borovo he also prepared his products on the grill, OPG Son of the Plains Domagoja Vide presented products from the black Slavonian pig, a PP Orahovica which, in addition to winemaking and fish farming, presented its fish products. As for their wines, I couldn't resist tasting their green silvana.
Agricultural business incubator from Drenovac presented the project "Short supply chains and local markets from Cvelferija", and at their stand was presented OPG Picek - GARDEN small otter with a whole series of its products. President cheeses were also presented, because cheese is an excellent compensator of taste, and Osijek was also at the fair. Chade Chocolate. For theirs pralines have been proven to combine perfectly with Baranja Traminers. This fair was truly comprehensive, so the master Ivan Grubić from Belišće presented himself with his unique wine racks, a company that provides agricultural crops from Slavonski Brod and the company Grafika from Osijek that makes visual solutions and labels for wine.
But let's go back to the wine itself. At the stand Soldo winery from Vetovo I tasted Manzoni, the only manzoni I came across at this year’s WineOs. Wine of the same variety is also made by the Krauthaker winery in Kutjevo, but since they have over forty labels, they did not bring it this time. But that's why there were a number of other great wines. Adžić wineries from Kutjevo were also present, Galic and Kutjevo dd, which presented its own Traubi wine which is made from 50% top grade graševina and 50% must muskata ottonela.
She participated in the WineOs from the Novi Grad vineyards Kraljić winery from Rešetari and presented its aromatized wine cocktails from the Markus line. Wines come from the Virovitica vineyards Apolitical. "Caruga" and "Angel with a Mistake" we tasted in their basement in mid-September last year directly from the tanks, and appeared on WineOs in a bottled version. I tasted theirs masterful, chardonnay, sur lie from 2020, which was aged in oak barrels for a year. A masterful wine, as the name suggests.
Moslavina presented itself of course with its scarlet, and the wine that particularly delighted me was Muscat yellow Antuna Glavica. Their blend of white wines is also great Marble collis. The south of Croatia was represented by the wineries Rizman, Volarević and Grabovac.
She performed at WineOs from Slovenia Guštin winery; excellent merlot from the Vipava Valley, and one of the most frequent stands was the one Brzanov artisan winery from Macedonia. Winery Return from Žepče presented itself with a whole range of interesting wines. I tasted theirs Müller - Thurgau, or Rizvanac because this wine can rarely be tasted. Jungić Winery from Markovac near Banja Luka is a great surprise for this year's WineOs. Incense is great for them, and Šikar is a premium fantastic black blend.
Gin, absinthe and beer brandy of OPG Bošnjak from Sičice, and brandy Jedna from Osijek and their Little gypsum gin whose alcohol base is a fourfold distillate of an old cherry variety called gypsy.
The two days of the festival were too short to visit everything and talk to everyone, let alone try everything or at least most of it. I concluded this year’s WineOs with a glass of sauvignon at the Kaptol winery stand. They have great wines and build a real wine departmentt, a unique complex of this type in Slavonia, and since last year the town of Kaptol has its own version of wine & walka, which they named You Go & Drink!, which was of course also attended by the Kaptol winery. And what to say in the end than: two days of WineOs, two days of pure enjoyment!
Photos: Mario Jukić
