June 21, 2019 - It is more than three years since one of Croatia's greatest winemakers passed away - a rare chance to try a special bottle in his honour - Zlatan Aurum.
He was a titan.
I remember the shock of hearing of the sudden and untimely passing of celebrated winemaker Zlatan Plenkovic in March, 2016, as he suddenly collapsed and died on the Split to Stari Grad ferry.
From his base in Sveta Nedjelja, with its fabled steep Plavac Mali vineyards, the Zlatan Otok Grand Cru was one of Croatia's most highly prized bottles. But his range of wines included so much more than his flagship red, and I remember reporting on his Posip winning Decanter gold in London.
Soon after his untimely death, the Zlatan Otok winery announced that it wanted to honour the life of Zlatan with a special, very limited edition called Zlatan Aurum (Zlatan's first name means 'gold' in Croatian, hence the Latin name for gold in the special wine, which had 23 carat-gold leaf inside). This is how the Zlatan Otok winery announced the wine at the time:
We wanted to do something in honor of Zlatan so we came to idea of white wine with gold leafs. Zlatan achieved many successes with this wine so we decided to do it with pošip. Gold represents him and the vinery as his legacy also, not just beacause his name, and the name of winery in Croatian language means gold, also because Zlatan was such great person, loved by many people.
.-limited edition wine
-vintage 2015
-23 karat edible gold leafs
-13% alcohol
I have heard nothing about Zlatan Aurum since that first announcement.
Until this morning. During a conversation after breakfast with the director of Hotel Adriana, I learned that Zlatan Aurum was one of a number of very impressive wines on the Val Marina Restaurant wine list. And not only that, but Suncani Hvar Hotels are the only place outside Zlatan's Sveta Nedjelja where you can find this rare wine.
You can read TCN's tribute to Zlatan Plenkovic here.
Looking to learn more about Croatian wine? Check out the Total Croatia Croatian Wine in a Page guide.
