[My Barolo series will resume shortly]
I already told you about the real illumination I felt when tasting the Roxanich 2007 Malvazija at the Zagreb Vino festival last November. Meeting Mladen Rožanić was one of my remarkable experiences of 2010, and so it was an obvious thing to do to call for an appointment at the winery when I visited Istria late last April.
Mladen Rožanić: Croatian visionary. © Roxanich.
Roxanich, as the winery is called, includes 25 hectares in northern Istria and although the terra rossa soil is as good as that of Trapan further south, the rather plain-looking vineyards here don’t really say much about why Roxanich wines are so exciting. Moreover, Mr. Rožanić is an investor from outside the wine world (he runs a successful engineering company in Zagreb). Usually this doesn’t bode terribly well: such externally funded ‘projects’ usually pursue an anonymous international style and offer little in way of terroir excitement. I’ve seen literally hundreds of such wineries in Italy and would be in difficulty to list five or six that make outstanding wines.
Roxanich vineyard in northern Istria: terra rossa soil makes the difference. © Roxanich.
Roxanich, however, is different. These wines are very uncommercial: there is nothing international-styled about them. In fact, they share more than a few characteristics with the current of ‘natural’ wines, which is exactly the opposite of what you’d expect from the winery of an industrial mogul. Mladen Rožanić has entertained his love of wine by travelling widely in France and Italy, and his tastes are surprising and eclectic: in the small private cellar I oversaw there’s no Petrus or Harlan but an interesting collection of wines from the Rhône and Provence as well as vintage port.
This open-mindedness shows in the idiosyncratic vinification here, with reds fermenting in conical wooden vats and then moving into oak that is small as well as large: a bold move by modern standards but these Italian-style botti make a big contribution to the juicy, approachable texture of the wines instead of gluing them up with creamy vanilla. Even more remarkably, the white wines – there’s a Chardonnay and a crazy Ines in White field blend of Riesling Italico, Vermentino, Sauvignon et al. alongside the traditional Istrian Malvazija – see extended skin contact up to several months!
Croatia’s blue chips: small and large cask in Roxanich cellar.
I tasted extensively from barrel: the 2010 whites are very tight at the moment but showing impressive promise, the 2008 Chardonnay had fantastic harmony, the 2008 Pinot Crni (Pinot Noir) was just superb while the 2009 Borgonja really stunned me with its smooth fruit and otherworldly finesse. Looking later at the bottled wines I was impressed by three vintages (2005–2007) of the Teran Ré: in what must be surely one of the leading bottlings of this tricky variety either side of the Italo-Slavic border, the Roxanich Teran reconciles the vegetal and the fruity, the rich and the sober, the raspy and the silky. The 2007 Chardonnay Milva is a tour de force of winemaking with fantastic spicy saffron complexity and presence that transcend the variety’s buttery comfort zone. Another remarkable bottle is the 2008 Rosé: made of Istria’s native Borgonja grape it is vinous, structured, multilayered, young and staggeringly serious for a pink wine.
There are two bottling of the 2005: the Teran Ré is in fact 100% old vine Refošk while the Teran is Teran.
But my heart is with Roxanich’’s Malvazija Antica. Up to 170 days of skin contact and three years in cask make a wine of incredible high relief and saline minerality. Yet there’s nothing aggressive, violently oxidised or heady-alcoholic about this wine: as much as it’s possible to speak about elegance in macerated whites, this wine is the epitome of finesse. Tasted from barrel alongside other wines, the 2010, 2009 and 2008 was the best of each respective vintage. The 2007, now in bottle (it’s the same vintage I tasted back in Zagreb), adds an extra layer of complexity and a relaxed, self-confident whiff of bottle age to all the above.
Same colour as their olive oil: Roxanich’s 2007 Malvazija.
It’s often difficult to retaste wines that stunned you in the past. If a wine is good, it will always show its qualities but subjective emotion is very difficult to recreate. Roxanich wines did that trick. I was even more excited tasting them this time across the range. They have an incredible dimension and sense of purpose that sets them apart.
Disclosure
My trip to Croatia including flights and accommodation was sponsored by the VinIstra competition where I served as a jury member.
Wojciech
I love the fact that you often discuss and review wines and wine regions that are rarely discussed today. You are well ahead of the wine times in my opinion! It’s always a pleasure to read the Polish Wine Guide.
And, this Malvazija in particular made me perk up and very thirsty!
thank you,
Thanks Joseph. Some Roxanich is coming your way on June 5th
Wow Wojciech! If I wasn’t already looking forward to the 5th, I certainly am now
Did you taste the “Super-Istrian”? I felt that one was quite definitely (deliberately) international-styled (and very bland in my book), in addition to being so tackily named. As for the rest of the range, for the most part I see the interest and respect the effort, but, in all honesty, I just can’t seem to warm to the wines. Sure, some of the wines are quite bold, and all are really well-made, but that’s just it: they all taste a little too “deliberate” a little too “made” to me
…
).
(BTW, toglimi una curiosita’: have you tasted Zdjelarevic’s “Nagual” by any chance? I’d love to hear your take on that one
I don’t quite agree with you: although the Roxanich reds are clearly less crazy and adventurous than the whites, I wouldn’t really call them blind. I think they have fantastic quality of fruit and superb balance in the winemaking: never overextracted, not in the least green, very balanced alcohol, completely unobtrusive oak… The Superistrian (never mind the name) I’d place second behind the Teran Re; it’s perhaps the Merlot and Cabernet which are just a bit more mainstream, but never boring to me.
I tasted the 2007 Nagual white and 2007 red in June 2010. They’re pretty massive wines which were far from remotely ready to drink when I tried them. The white is really quite sweet from the ripeness and oak, but it has an underlying balance. Same for the red: very very tight and breathless but the quality of fruit showed quite well. But I wouldn’t touch these before 2014 perhaps.
Different strokes obviously. The Superistrian tasted somewhat jammy to me each time I had it, and I don’t think it’s because of the varieties involved: simply my palate. As for the Nagual being very tight, that’s what I thought last year as well (I was, and remain, more impressed by the red). Just opened another bottle of the 2007 red the other day, however, and was somewhat taken aback to find it settled, open, and drinking quite beautifully already: oak below the perception threshold, unusual purity, grace, precision and delineation, great contrapposto
. Definitely exceeding my expectations, but perhaps ready a bit too soon, given its lofty ambitions? Whatever. “Mainstream” or not, honestly, I am pleased to be finding more and more likable Croatian wines based on the Bordeaux varieties. Five or more years ago? Unthinkable… (Coronica’s Grabar having been the only, if noteworthy, exception)
This is really interestinng. Just as you I’m surprised that a 2007 Nagual woul be open and ready to drink – and I don’t really see a problem here. Ageworthiness is often exaggerated as an argument for wine quality. I prefer to focus on the hic et nunc. Plus there’s no reason whyy that wine shouldn’t keep even if it’s good so early.
I second your thought on Bdx varieties in Croatia. surely Istria is looking like a fantastic place for Merlot. I could say the same about Kras and Vipava on the Slovenian side. It’s time people discovered these wines in their depth of fruit annd impecccable natural balance.
Oh yes, I think it will keep, no doubt: it’s very tectonic, everything is there, the balance is right. I’m just no longer sure it will keep quite as long as I thought when I first tasted it last year.
)
The way I see it, ageworthiness in wine is a matter of relative, not absolute, quality. While it is a sine-qua-non for “long-haul wines”, there are -obviously- hundreds of other types of wine where notions of ageability are anything from secondary to entirely irrelevant.
(And ageworthy wines are probably the realm of those who think of that ibi et tunc fifteen or thirty or more years down the road as just another hic et nunc in the making
Istria looks promising for both Cab and Merlot: the Merlots seem to me at present to be perhaps a little more interchangeable, the Cabs tending to have more cut, vibrancy and personality. (Speaking of Kras, I still remember vividly my first bottle of the Cotars’ 1999 Terra Rossa: probably still my best red-dirt wine ever.)
You made me go to the cellar and grab a bottle of that 1999 Terra Rossa
I do remember it as an outstanding wine; will retaste soon and post my impressions.
I first experienced the Roxanich 2007 Teran last week in Croatia. Amazing wine. My question is whether there anyway to buy it in the US?
I am sure it’s available, but don’t have details at hand.