At the 24th International Fair Economy in Mostar, the evaluation of wine samples was held.
The international commission composed of 15 excellent oenologists from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina evaluated the wines according to the established method of 100 points, with awards ranging from bronze, silver, and gold. This year, as a rarity, only one of the samples won the Big Gold Plaque, which went to a wine of a non-autochthonous variety, namely
Syrah. Syrah has definitely become a very interesting variety, and on the soil of Herzegovina, enologists agree.
- We can be very satisfied with the objective quality level of the wine. Unlike in the past, when I started conducting evaluations here, I was critical, so today, with great pleasure, I can and must give praise and say that all producers from this area, but also from other countries from which the samples arrived, can be proud of their employees, told us, prof. Bernard
Kozina, from the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, also chairman of the commission.
As for žilavka and the comparison with wines from Slavonia and other regions, we can put žilavka on par with Graševina and some other (non)aromatic varieties. What we have here in recent years as results, and among Graševina, Chardonnay and other white non-aromatic varieties, there are quite a few stringy labels that are completely in line with objective quality and can be compared with any of those varieties.
At the end of the evaluation of the wine samples, prof. Kozina sent a message to local winemakers: "We can all be very satisfied with the quality of the wine, but that satisfaction must not lull us to sleep. The fact that we make excellent wines should be an incentive for us to develop things forward, to acquire new skills and use new technologies, which will guarantee us a bright viticultural future - said Prof. Kozina.
Dalfina Bošnjak who spoke on behalf of the Mostar Fair said:
- I am glad that the tradition of wine evaluation was continued at the fair, because our permanent task is the promotion of domestic autochthonous varieties of žilavka and blatina wines. We will present the awards to the best on the second day of the fair, on Wednesday, May 3 - said the director of the Mostar Fair, Dalfina Bošnjak, and invited all winemakers to come to the wine fair days.
