Journalists from the most famous Dutch and Belgian wine magazine and a sommelier from Sweden are coming to visit Istria. On 3 and 4 February, Vinistra is preparing an exclusive tasting for them in the sales point within the castle Morosini-Grimani in Svetvinčent

Ronald de Groot, director and editor-in-chief of Perswijn, and Paul Balke, journalist of this most popular Dutch and Belgian wine magazine, will visit Istria. They will be joined by sommelier Jasenko Selimović, who lives in Sweden and is currently writing a book for that market about the wines of the Balkans and Southeast Europe, including Istrian wines.

On Thursday and Friday, 3 and 4 February, a wine workshop, organized by Vinistra in cooperation with the Tourist Board of Istria County will welcome these world-renowned wine connoisseurs and promoters.

In numbers: 23 Istrian winemakers with 69 wines, each winemaker will present three labels, two days of exclusive tasting in the most beautiful Istrian castle Morosini-Grimani in Svetvinčent, where Vinistra opened a sales point last year.

New markets in focus

“Opportunities like these are not to be missed, especially since we are talking about new markets where some of our members are already present. Every year, more and more lovers of Istrian wine come from the Netherlands and Sweden, they are looking for new, authentic, local tastes and are not willing to make compromises when it comes to quality. Expanding to new markets is one of the goals of the Strategy for the Development of Winemaking and Viticulture until 2030, and this tasting is a kind of a warm-up for the upcoming judging of wines and hard liquors as well as the 13th World of Malvasia, which will traditionally be held in Poreč from 5 to 8 April, says Nikola Benvenuti, president of Vinistra.

Globally, there is an increasing interest in Istrian wines, which have become one of the strongest Croatian eno-gastro brands. The reason for this is not only their exceptional quality, but also the continuous work of the Vinistra association on their promotion, which hosted the world's greatest wine critics such as the legendary Steven Spurrier, Oz Clarke and sommelier Paula Bosch.

More than 320 thousand individual visits to Istrian cellars

“The Istria County Tourist Board is the initiator of an extremely large number of tourism development projects since 1995, when the first wine road of Bujština was constructed. This initially small development project grew over time into a much larger, more extensive project with richer content. Today, after years and years of education, improvement, measurement with the best European experiences, great engagement of our winemakers, we can freely say that wine tourism has developed in Istria as one of the most important segments of Istrian tourism. This is best confirmed by the numbers - 320 thousand individual visitors to the wine cellars of Istria. In this process, wine experts, journalists, opinion leaders, influencers and many others greatly contributed to the raising of reputation of Istria as an attractive wine destination. That is why this project aimed at the rich Benelux market is also commendable", says Denis Ivošević, director of the Istria County Tourist Board.