PLAVAC MALI BARRIQUE - JaVa

Plavac mali JaVa is a red wine made of autochthonous grape variety "Plavac mali"  which grows only on the peninsula of Pelješac and two neighboring islands (the very South tip of Croatia). Plavac mali is the"son" of two grape varieties: Zinfandel and Dobričić. These great grape varieties mixed and made a strong son - Plavac mali.

In early October, we hand pick our grapes Plavac mali, from a handful of extreme southern positions where grapes get triple insolation (sunlight, the reflection of the sea and the rocks). We combine 2-3 different positions to tame the alcohols and preserve the acidity. The temperatures in some wineyards during the summer reachesup to 45°C! This provides the opportunity to keep those positions free of chemical treatment. Then, the grapes are crushed and left to macerate for about 15 days where fermentation starts. The temperatures in fermenting wine is permanently kept at around 20°C.

After fermentation we put our wine in “barrique” barrels for about one year just to get a touch of American oak wood which gives this wine a smooth vanilla flavour. We use the mildest possible type of wood to get minimum influence on taste and maximum in rounding the tannins. Patience and tasting gives us a right moment to feel and decide when our wine is ready to go out from the winery to your table. Plavac mali JaVa is a modern breakthrough in wine making on a noverly traditional peninsula of Pelješac.

The challenge was to tame this strong southern wine which has about 15 % alc. and extreme extracts with a full body, making it “soft, rounded and drinkable”. Such excessive manual work allows us to carefully nurture only up to 1000 bottles per single year!