GrapeCollective: Croatian Wines

As linked in Terroirist, there's an interesting article in GrapeCollective by Croatian wine blogger Zeljko Garmaz on Croatian wines:
Garmaz/CroatianWines

It refers to the Croatia/Slovenia/Friuli dispute over the use of the Teran grape variety name. I also learn that there is an autochthonous grape variety by the name of Prc ("Fuck" in Croatian). Clearly a variety they should be planting all up&down the coast of Calif. Probably wouldn't be too hard to get the label for that variety by the TTB folks.

They just recently completed a conference in Kastela on the historical origins of Tribidrag. I think it was, in part, to honor CaroleMeredith and her Croatian partners on the discovery that Zinfandel & Tribidrag are one in the same and originated in Croatia. I suspect a lot of Zinfandel went down the hatch there. US representatives were Carole Meredith/Dave Gates/Joel Peterson. JancisRobinson was in attendance and will probably have a report. I've been following Carole's FaceBook posts on the event. The pics are beautiful.
Tom

well, PRC!

The back label of the bottle says this is from Croatia. So I thought I'd try what a Malvasia from Croatia was like. The first taste was like nothing I've ever had. It was so different in fact that I wondered whether it might be a bad bottle. A second sip and I backed away from bad. It was just different not bad. That's when I ran to Jancis Robinson and found that I was not drinking a Malvasia from Croatia but an indigenous Croatian wine known as Malavazija Istarska that has a characteristic bitter almond taste. Yes, that was it. Bitter almond. Still, it was a bit much. So I put it back in the refrigerator and tried it again the next day. Now the taste had moderated and become a more minerally bitter almond that was quite good. $17.

The back label of the bottle says this is from Croatia. So I thought I'd try what a Malvasia from Croatia was like. The first taste was like nothing I've ever had. It was so different in fact that I wondered whether it might be a bad bottle. A second sip and I backed away from bad. It was just different not bad. That's when I ran to Jancis Robinson and found that I was not drinking a Malvasia from Croatia but an indigenous Croatian wine known as Malavazija Istarska that has a characteristic bitter almond taste. Yes, that was it. Bitter almond. Still, it was a bit much. So I put it back in the refrigerator and tried it again the next day. Now the taste had moderated and become a more minerally bitter almond that was quite good. $17.

Well, Dan...I particularly like Malavasia d'Istriana/Istarka because the muscatty character is much lower key
and it shows more minerality. The folks in Friuli, where the winemaking is more skilled, seem to be better than most
of the Croatian examples I've had.
Tom

Darn, we were in Friuli several years ago but don't recall seeing it.