There has been only 15 years of serious experience with Trnjak, and he is already producing wonderful wines. It took others in the world centuries to make such progress. With these words, Stefan Neumann, an Austrian Master Sommelier with an English address, began the presentation of six trnjaks just before the start of the 4th TrnjakFest in Ljubuški.
Local character, global comparison
Under the title Exploring trnjak: Local character, global comparison, he offered three groups of three wines: two Trnjaks or Trnaks and a third known throughout the world. He was helped in the selection of Trnjaks by our sommelier Daniel Čečavec. They tasted 12 wines of this variety in order to select six for presentation.
In the first round, the 2023 Trnjaks from the Jerković winery from Glavina Donja near Imotski and the 2022 Herzegovinian Bošnjak winery from Donji Mamić near Grude were joined by Chianti Classico 2021, a Tuscan red standard made from the Sangiovese variety. If you want good prosciutto, you don't have to go to Italy, Stefan vividly compared the three wines.
Equal to the best worldwide brands
Indeed, the first Trnjak, the youngest one, had quite a bit of wood, but wine was strong enough to be enjoyed. The second showed a special character because it came from a vineyard planted at a time when the Trnjak played a secondary role as a pollinator of the blatina, and both were equal to the wines whose name is among the most famous world brands.
The leaner wines, which by no means mean worse, arrived in the second course. The legendary red wine from northern Spain, Rioja Reserva 2020, dominated by the great Tempranillo variety, was offered alongside Trnjak Keža 2023 from Ljubuški and Trnjak Grabovac 2022 from the Imotski area. And in this course, one could say that you don't need to go to Spain if you want good dried pork leg, which they call jamon.
Trnjak is like Prosciutto
The third round brought into the ring Trnjak Agron 2022 from the Opuzen winery Prović, Trnjak 2022 from the winery Nuić from Crnopod near Ljubuški, which is most responsible for the independent emergence of this variety into the world, and Valpolicella Ripaso 2022 from the Veneto region in northern Italy. And there again is a connection with prosciutto. Prosciutto is a kind of gastronomic trademark of the Veneto, so you don't even need to go to Italy if you want a good dried pork leg, which they call it similarly to us.
Although the vintages reached back to 2020, all nine wines, whether Trnjak's or goests, displayed an extraordinary freshness that goes well with the prosciutto, with which we unofficially compared them. Rarely do two countries hold wine festivals, and this one is the only one that works so well. It shows how potent, rich, wonderfully structured and soft trnjak is.
Ballerina among wines
He's not a boxer, although he can punch, and he acts like a ballerina. He's one of the wines with the most antioxidants and can be compared to tannat, which was historically grown in southwestern France, and is now among the most prominent Uruguayan varieties, concluded Stefan a beautiful story that was a truly great introduction to TrnjakFest in the City Park in Ljubuški.
And in Ljubuški, about thirty wineries presented more than 40 Trnjaks or Trnaks, depending on the region they come from. There was no Rudežuša, although that is the third name for the variety. However, there was a lot of delicious food, from domestic breads, prosciutto and cheeses to sweets.
Trnjak helps finding friends
There were also opportunities for pleasant wine conversations with old friends and acquaintances, and even finding a new ones. There was also a lot of good live music, silent enoughnot to disturb chatting, so the beautifull story lasted well into the night. The photographs of the two Ivanas will show the atmosphere better than words could.
Photos: Ivana Čutura (vino.rs), Ivana Pranjić (Cork Croatia)