A wine from Istria, the “Istrian” 2015 from the Veralda Winery in Brtonigla, has won a Decanter World Wine Award in the prestigious Best Red Single Varietal in Show 2016 category for wines priced over £15, Glas Istre reports today, May 13, 2016. The wine received 95 of 100 points from the most renowned wine magazine worldwide and has thereby also won a Platinum Medal. Fantastic news for Veralda Winery owner Luciano Visintin and his family, and for Istrian and Croatian winemaking in general, but which single wine grape variety is the “Istrian” made of?
Decanter is set to publish the official results of the World Wine Awards (WWA) 2016 on June 6 and the Croatian public is eager to find out how the magazine is going to name the single red wine grape variety the “Istrian” is made of, since “Istrian” is a brand name and not a grape variety. The “Istrian” is not a Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Zinfandel, nor a Malbec or Pinot Noir; it is made of “The One That Must Not Be Named” for Croatian winemakers and is also known as “You Know Which” on the wine’s export markets. In the past centuries the autochthonous Istrian red grape variety TOTMNBN, of which “Istrian” is made, was known as Teran in the Croatian, Italian and Slovenian parts of the Istrian peninsula.
TOTMNBN grapes at the Veralda vineyards
This changed in the year 2000 when Slovenian shysters protected Teran as a Slovenian product, with it becoming a protected product at EU level in 2004, when Slovenia joined the EU. In 2013 it secured a ban on the sale of Croatian TOTMNBN in stores across the EU. And the Slovenians mean business. In 2014, the Slovenian newspaper Primorske Novice (based in Koper in Slovenian Istria) mistakenly published an announcement of a wine festival in Croatian Istria where TOTMNBN was mentioned as Teran. They were fined a total of €33,550 by decision of the Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia for Agriculture, Forestry and Food.
If a wine variety enjoys protection of origin, it raises the price 2.75 times, as studies on the subject show and Slovenia is protecting “its” Teran for this reason, while Croatia is trying to convince the European Commission to intervene by a delegated act and expand the protection to Istria as a whole.
While, the official Slovenian policy is to pretend to not know what the fuss is about, (Slovenian Agriculture Minister for sloveniatimes.com: “Slovenia believes it would be best that this story comes to an end and turns into remnant of less happy times."), the winemakers and the people of Istria feel robbed, while having nothing against Slovenian Teran. They firmly believe that TOTMNBN will become known under its original name again and that they’ll be able to congratulate the Visintin’s on their superb “Istrian” Teran.
