I continue my exploration of the wines of Croatia. Not only to me, Croatia increasingly appears as one of the most exciting wine countries in Europe and beyond. With EU membership scheduled for July 2013 being sealed just now, more excitement (and exposure) is yet to come.
I’ve picked this 2006 Sv. Jakov Plavac Mali from Mendek in a wine shop in Poreč last April. Price was around 13€. Mendek is a brand belonging to a large import company; there is also some Istrian Malvazija made here as well as some more expensive Plavacs including the 15€ Mozaik and 35€ Selekcija. Tuscany’s Roberto Cipresso is the consultant winemaker.
This Sv. Jakov is a stunning effort. What is stunning is actually the balance and drinkability, not the sheer power. Plavac is related to Zinfandel. Most modern Plavacs do try to taste like Zins, and they succeed. An early-ripening grape, in the hot Adriatic summer on poor stony soils it will easily climb to 15 or more % alcohol. The wines can be and often are exceedingly rich, concentrated, with decadent ripe fruit profiles. But Plavac’s naturally lowish acids and somewhat rustic tannins mean that it’s a grape easy to overdo, and difficult to balance. Some taste like fruit jam with ground black pepper. It can be impressive but would you drink three glasses of jam?
My impression from two recent trips to Croatia is that after a period of über-Plavacs there’s a tendency towards more balanced styles emerging at the moment. Plavac makes great everyday reds (as well as rosés) but a premium bottling clocking in at only 13.8% alc. is a relatively new phenomenon: Korta Katarina’s 2007 is one of the more serious wines I’ve tasted from Dalmatia.
Taut not jammy: Plavac with a difference.
This Sv. Jakov from Mendek is another case in point. It’s 13.5% on the label, and opens with a surprising acidity that’s poles apart from the flabby, oily expression we were long told is in Plavac’s DNA. The taste profile here is actually familiar: plums, prunes, bitter cherries, black peppercorn, tar (a frequent note also in Zinfandel) but there is also an autumnal, fallen-leaf feel to the whole, and it tastes bone-dry and vinous rather than sweet and jammy. The other interesting thing is the staying power. Overripe, superalcoholic Plavac oxidises very easily. This wine improved over three days from opening. For a mid-priced wine from 2006, it’s still on the ascending curve.
If anything, this wine is more reminiscent of Negroamaro than Primitivo from Italy’s Puglia. (Although genetically, Primitivo is from the same family as Plavac or Zin). The tautness, the slight bitterness, food friendliness and gracious ageing bring it close to Salice Salentino. A most interesting, and stylish, wine: another hit from Croatia.
Disclosure
Source of wine: own purchase.
Another fantastic post and more power to you:-). There are some things that spring to mind while reading it, though. I’ll try to be uncharacteristically brief…
. First, I would struggle to describe Mendek’s operation, Kult Dioniza, as a “large” import company. Second, I am not sure about the extent of Cipresso’s involvement these days: apparently it was very hands-on in the early stage, less so (if any) later. But this is not first-hand info, so needs checking. Third: I totally subscribe to the way you describe the more balanced style of Plavac Mali (the admirable art of quick portraiture that needs no more than a few brushstrokes, yet lacks nothing in completeness 
), and I see where you are going with the Negroamaro/Salice analogy – there can be a certain Gestalt-based similarity in the case of well-made, balanced wines on both sides (and we can extend that to include even some “old-fashioned” exemplars of Nero di Troia). Nevertheless, in my experience, if we are looking for a Pugliese analogy, the closest would be a traditionally made Primitivo from Gioia del Colle: I have found repeatedly over the years that there is indeed a striking “family resemblance” between the two. There you go. I’m just brevity-challenged, nothing doing 
Buonsangue, your comments and corrections are always much appreciated here.
Regarding the Pugliese analogy, I guess you’re right, although this 2006 was crisper and fresher than anything I’ve tasted from Gioia del Colle – in fact surprisingly so for Plavac – hence Negroamaro sprang to mind. And when you say “traditionally made Gioia”, does that style still exist? On my stay there in December 2009 all fish seemed to swim towards the modern jammy style. And alcohol levels were routinely north of 14.5%.
Thank you
. Well north of 14.5% is in fact, as you know, very much the tradition in places like Manduria, Sava, and (perhaps to a lesser extent, due to the relative altitude) Gioia. The wines I am talking about still pack quite a punch, granted, but somehow also manage to be surprisingly balanced and elegant, if not exactly delicate 
. Nothing overblown or modern about them (at least not in the way I understand the term). On the other hand, I’ve also had some GdC in the low 13 up to 14% range. Caveat: most of the experience that I’m drawing upon spans vintages between 1997 and 2005, so, as you were there in 2009, it’s theoretically possible that these wines have since disappeared off the face of the earth (stranger things have happened 
). I am, however, also aware of the string of new producers that have cropped up over the last few years (very ambivalent about some -Scj’o, Polvanera…-, positively love at least one: Guttarolo). One last thing that I’ve been pondering in relation to this: both Primitivo and Plavac often have “plummy” flavours, and one man’s “jammy” is another man’s “plum” (not sure where I draw the line myself 
). (P.S. Not sure if I’ve asked you already, have you ever tasted Stagnum?)
I agree about plummy. Although this Mendek also had a cherry-like acidity, unusual in Primitivo or Plavac IME, hence I compared it to Negroamaro.
Many thanks again for your valued comments!
I have tasted Stagnum a few times, including at the Zagreb Vino last November, and I think it’s one of the most interesting examples of the uver-Plavac style. It’s very big but there is depth and structure too. Would gladly redrink it
I definitely agree: the Mendek wines are very good (if I go all in-depth on this as well, I’ll probably exceed the bandwidth
). Totally disagree re your classification of Stagnum as an ueber-Plavac: no choice but to do a vertical the next time you end up in this neck of the woods 
. (And, no – thank YOU: this is one of the few places where I am happy to try and give something back, not least because it’s a place where, more often than not, I am happy to just sit back and learn.)
Thanks for the coverage as we haven’t had a chance to taste this particular Plavac Mali. Even though you picked up the bottle in Istria, it’s a Pelješac winery, yes?
Ths particular wine is from Pelješac. I don’t know if the winery is too – they also release an Istarska Malvazija from Zapadna Istra. They appear to be acting as a supernegociant. I don’t have much background on the operation so perhaps Buonsangue can enlighten us on this.
Croatian wines are too expensive for what they offer. There are some great wines but way overpriced.
Gjorgje, to which wines exactly are you referring? This wine was absolutely great value for 13€. There are overpriced wines in Croatia as anywhere else, but I could list hundreds which have an attractive price/quality ratio.