Jako vino Stina Plavac Mali Vrhunsko Vino, Majstor Barrique

Just really nice. Enjoyed with a soul vide flank steak and Greek villager salad. It went fine with the steak, of course (I could have closed my eyes and still pulled a match from my cellar). But I was just really impressed sipping this on its own - opens with some beautiful red raspberry notes, and tails off to a smooth smoky finish. Yum. I have one of these left - don’t see any reason to wait much longer.

"It’s a Zin!" - Flight 4, wine 2 (blind): A pirate. The wine was medium to dark ruby in color and offered red fruit, coffee and some spice as well as off-notes (reminding of roots, moss and chemical notes) on the nose and palate. Slightly bitter and disjointed, with a hole in the middle. Not pleasant. Avoid.

Plavac Mali is the child of Tribidrag/Zinfandel (a grape I covered a few weeks ago on grapenomad.com, chekitout). Stina's barrique version of it shows a beautiful, luminous cherry red color in the glass. Decanted for an hour and half when it really started showing generous notes of fresh cherries, crushed rose petals, dried cranberries, dried figs and that emblematic note of dug-up leather that Plavac from this part of Dalmatia gets with a bit of age. Finesse is the name …

Enjoyed at the “J-I-S-T” restaurant (Viskovo) close to Rijeka. I prefer it over the 2011. Body and structure is quite similar to 2011 but 2013 has all that seductive jammy fruits in particularly prunes, plums, blueberries and hint of peach. Nice, nice… nice! Big and bold in the mouth. Long and silky, (almost sweet) fruity aftertaste with this characteristic Plavac Mali almond bitterness and touch of mint freshness at the end. This bottle drinks like 35 euros Amarone. Drink now …