ABOUT WINE
About wine
It's a long road from careful selection of a grapevine to uncorking a bottle of wine, and its stages are marked by nature and human skills alike.
The first element important for grapevine is water; next, sun and soil, with its fertility which ensures grapevine's harmonious development.
The wine science is oenology. In France you can even go to university and study the process of winemaking.
The variety and quality of wine is influenced by climate, soil as well as the colour of grapes.
Grape
The main components of a grape are pedicel and berry. Each of them plays an important role in wine-making.
Pedicel contains tannins which increase longevity of the wine and add acridity to its flavour.
Berry is composed of:
- grapeskin, which contains all the dyes (flavones and anthozyans) and makes the juice colourless. Yeast neccessary for future fermentation accumulate in wax substances on the surface of berry;
- seeds are removed since they might add undesirable bitterness;
- parenchyma soaked with juice makes 80 - 85% of grape weight. After squashing parenchyma, we get a liquid called must.
Stages of wine making:
- The process of vinification
Preparing must. During the process, yeast and dyes from the skins leach into the juice. This is the stage when the pedicles are removed. The fact whether they are entirely or party removed influences the amount of alcohol in wine. Putting must in open tanks starts the process of fermentation.
- The process of clarification
The process of clarification implies adding substances that will help to precipitate dead yeast cells and other solids out of a wine and force them to the bottom of the tank. Winemakers add egg whites, clay, gelatin or mineral substances like bentonite. Wine stays in the tank for a longer period of time so that the solids may drop to the bottom of the tank. Next, the wine is collected and the effect is wine of best quality. Decantation may be accelerated by using filters and/or siphons. In our vineyards, only the first, natural method is used.
- The process of ageing
Like a living being, wine is born, has its period of youth and maturity before it fades away. After the fermentation is finished, wine, especially the quality type, is not ready to be consumed. It needs time to develop and mature. Wines mature in oak barrels, having contact with oxygen, or in bottles, without oxygen. Regardless if it mellows in barrels or not, before it is poured into bottles, it should be clear, healthy and devoid of yeast.
- Coupage
It means blending wines of different kinds in order to get wines of desirable quality.
Croatia
Croatia is famous for splendid wines. Red, white and rose wines are most popular.
Croatia
The area of wine cultivation is known as appellation; it is divided into two regions: continental and coastal, and into twelve subregions. The most interesting for wine gourmets are:
- Podunavlje - continental
- Slavonja - continental
- Maslovina, part of - continental
- Prigorje-Bilogora - continental
- Pokuplje - continental
- Pleśvica - continental
- Zagorje-Medjumurje - continental
- Istra część zachodnia - coastal*
- Hrvatsko primorje - coastal
- Northern Dalmatia - coastal
- Dalmatinska Zagora - coastal, with strong Continental influences
- Central and Southern Dalmatia - coastal*
* - subregions from which we import wine
