We all know that wine and football do not pair so well as beer and football do, but we all hope to have some reasons to toast next month after Croatian football matches. Euro is coming, some might ironically say it will also disappear in June (the monetary one), but no doubt a lot of thrill is yet to come.
On that note it’s maybe a perfect moment to get back to the past, let’s say year 1998. Economically no so much excitement at that time, but in terms of sport that was a significant football year especially for than “seven years old” Croatia. For all those who do not remember, Croatia won bronze medal after barely losing in semi finals against later world cup champion, France.
Two big wine nations 😉 Not so accurate but let’s say that Croatia is yet big in wine at least in terms of potential and climate that suits all possible varieties and is often called a rising star on wider wine scene. Where is Grk in that story?! Hard to say since it’s currently grown in one single area in this world, sandy soil in central valley of Lumbarda, and very limited in quantity to be tasted by masses. Will it ever successfully propagate any further we don’t know.. But let’s recall briefly of all that we know about this unique grape variety:
– Grk is white grape that has only female flowers and should be cultivated with another variety with male flowers for succesfull pollination. Most of the time Plavac or eventually Cetinka play that male role.
– Pollen from male flowers is not evenly dispersed on Grk grapes and for that reason the berries on grapes are frequently unevenly developed. Grape consists of berries of large and small sizes.
– Grk is grown from sandy soil, and roots of Grk penetrate very deeply into the soil what alows good protection during the draught
– Sandy soil is one of the reasons why phylloxera did not affect Grk in the past , since sand does not allow the formation of underground tunnels for this harmful pest
– The yield of Grk is very low, from 1kg to 1,5kg what is allways good for the wine quality.
This is all explained in the video down below which is with no translation to English, but now when you know the story you can simply enjoy the images from 1998. Filmed by Croatian national television with Branimir Cebalo (“junior” at that time ) in the main role. Not to forget Branimir Cebalo just won the first place in Croatian indigenous wine contest during recent MoslaVina wine festival. Will our nation be so successuful on upcoming Euro?! We don’t know yet, but cheer for Croatia and we will toast with Grk afterwards when you come to spend summer holidays in Lumbarda.