The recently published book Dalmatia – Wine stories by Željko Garmaz, author of the website Wine Stories and the same name book from 2014, will certainly leave a trace on the wine scene of Croatia
Just like his first book on wine did as well. The new one is more mature, thorough, broader and simply better, but the penmanship is identical. Željko Garmaz is known in the wine circles as an author primarily interested in the human stories behind the wine and wineries. His interviews are loud, his approach benevolent and his notes brilliant. With every person he unmistakably recognises the character, event, circumstance or hobby that define them and in the end define the wine. As Željko knows very well, between the character of the person and the character of their wine there is always a tight bond, Jutarnji List published on August 15, 2017.
After reading Željko’s stories, the wines we love and buy gain a new meaning, becoming closer to us and more identifiable as the author presented the outlook they possess, the temperament of the person who made them and numerous life situations the winemakers went through in order to pour their idea into a bottle sitting in front of us. The book is a collection of 73 wine stories from across Dalmatia, from Konavle in the very south of Dubrovnik to Novalja on Pag Island. They stretch for 404 pages and they all have contact and basic information such as the assortment and size of vineyards.
Dalmatia – Wine Stories is more of a book than a guide, to be read in one sitting, something making us laugh, sometimes touching us, mostly surprising us with a line form a life we knew nothing about. It is filled with dreams, realised and unfulfilled wishes, variety rescue missions or family heirlooms and warm stories uncovering the human side of an otherwise ordinary agricultural activity, ceasing to be ordinary and becoming majestic after this book.
Translated from Jutarnji List.
