Dubrovnik FestiWine opens with the pop of a cork!

A rather unusual press conference was held yesterday at 06,30 pm at Nautika restaurant. Wine tasting press conference ‘’It’s wine o’clock’’ announced the beginning of the first regional wine festival Dubrovnik FestiWine, Dubrovnik Wine Week and all the events that are a part of the festival.Prefect Nikola Dobroslavić opened press conference stating Dubrovnik-Neretva County truly has supreme quality wines that should be promoted better and hoping that Dubrovnik FestiWine, as one of the promotion tools, will become a traditional manifestation in Dubrovnik. He thanked sponsors, donators and associates without whom this project would be impossible to realize.Ms Melanija Milić, the director of the development agency of Dubrovnik-Neretva county DUNEA, highlighted the fact Dubrovnik FestiWine is a project which was prepared thoroughly and for a long time, after Viticulture strategy distinguished lack of wine and wine makers promotion as one of the problems. DUNEA applied and got a project of cross border cooperation of interactive development of wine making and tourism ‘’WiNe’’ (Wine Network Tourism) which has Dubrovnik FestiWine as a main event. The whole project is worth around 3 million HRK and for the last 24 months combines themed wine trails, wine museum, wine training program and Dubrovnik FestiWine.There are many events organized as a part of the festival in this busy week. Tuesday April 22 at 07.30 pm in Visia theatre you can enjoy excellent HRT’s documentary „Dossier Zinfandel" focusing on the history of ‘’mysterious vine’’ which intrigues scientists, wine makers and wine enthusiasts for 180 years with its unknown origin. The entrance is free of charge and we hereby invite all the interested people to join us.''Wine in tourism'' conference is scheduled on April 24th from 09.00 am – 06:00 pm at Visia intended for wine makers, hoteliers and all the interested citizens. Conference is open for the public. Mr. Denis Ivošević a director of Istria’s tourism board is the creator, moderator and one of the lecturers of the conference.The main part of the festival will be held at Klarisa at Friday and Saturday with the wine exhibition of 61 wine makers coming from Dubrovnik-Neretva County and 15 wine makers from Montenegro. Friday afternoon lectures and wine workshops are organized at the same time at Visia. Lectures are also open for the public and all the wine enthusiasts are invited to wine workshops with the ticket price of 50,00 HRK. Saturday is reserved for wine exhibition and ‘’Blind date’’ a special event: best white wine for our oyster will be chosen at Mali Ston.Wine competition of previously announced wines is organized as a part of Dubrovnik FestiWine. Best wines will be awarded with Dubrovnik FestiWine Trophy 2014.Panel of judges consists of domestic and foreign judges, oenologists, writers, journalists, bloggers, wine traders, promoters of wine and wine culture with international and professional diversity which guarantees independent and objective grading.Wine samples will be graded by international panel of judges made of multimember commissions and panels. President of panel of judges is Mr. Bojan Kobal. He works as the oenologist at the oldest winery in Slovenia and has official license for wine grading and frequently participates at global competitions. He announced 80 wines for grading (24 white wines, 4 rose wines and 52 red wines), concluding that Croatia is, when indigenous sorts and quality are considered, a leader in the region. He also said that hard work is ahead of them because he thinks all the wines, with all the work, effort and finally conservation - are excellent!Press conference was concluded with wine tasting and walking through our county with Mr. Aleksandar Noršić, a sommelier and a lecturer at Dubrovnik FestiWine. Mr. Noršić is also a one of the grading judges at Dubrovnik FestiWine Trophy and a part of Jabuke & Ruže company’s team, festival’s sponsor. Furthermore, he is leading two wine workshops at Dubrovnik FestiWine: Komarna – New star of Adriatic (professional tasting, presenting and tasting of Komarna’s wines) and Naši furesti (professional workshop, topic: domesticated international sorts at the Dubrovnik-Neretva county’s area).Media representatives enjoyed at the wine tasting in short presentation of five indigenous sorts: Rukatac PZ Kuna, Malvasija dubrovačka Marinović, Pošip Čara PZ Čara, Rose plavac mali PZ Kuna and Ponos plavac mali PZ Kuna accompanied with snacks prepared by Nautika restaurant’s chef.After the press conference, welcome dinner for all the judges, international and domestic cooperatives was held at ‘’Orsan’’ Sailing club where they were welcomed by vice prefect Mr. Davorko Obuljen and enjoyed in seasonal domestic food and local wines.