There are many different kinds of wine grapes, but the one coming from the Konavle region might just be – breathtaking! After many, many years, Konavle Region, thanks to Mr Niko Cvjetković has a brand new, or perhaps – re-discovered red wine variety.
Presentation of this amazing discovery was organized at the Monastery of St. Blaise in Pridvorje. Many winemakers were more than curious to see and taste this, as they stated last night, high quality wine variety.
Presenters an speakers at this ‘wine night’ were Ivo Vodopić, president of the Agroturism Konavle, Ivan Kramar, priest from the monastery and Božo Lasić, mayor of the Konavle Municipality, and professor Marko Karoglan from the Faculty of Agriculture Zagreb held an introductory lecture about the preparations for the upcoming season for winemakers. Lecture was followed by wine tasting.
About the unknown red wine variety
In the Konavle area, near the Dubrovnik Airport, an unknown black grape variety was found. Mr Cvjetković, an airport employee, found and saved this unusual variety and started an initiative for its identification.
From the very beginning Konavle Municipality and Airport Dubrovnik recognized the value of this project and supported the research. Samples of leaves and sprouts of unknown varieties were transported to Zagreb in June 2016 and analyzed by the standard procedure used to identify the variety. The analysis showed that the sample was not identical to any variety of more than 2000 that are currently in the database of the Faculty of Agriculture in Zagreb.
Preliminary analysis of the grapes have shown that this variety is a potentially high quality one and therefore, in 2017, the Faculty of Agriculture of Zagreb produced the first wine out of it. Hopefully, this tempting variety will soon get its name and be tasted by many, many wine lovers!
