In ancient times, peasants paid a tax called the gornica, which was calculated based on vineyard area, regardless of yield. They had to give wine to the lords even if hail had destroyed their vines. When they themselves began selling wines in the 16th century, the noble lords imposed a first-purchase rule at a price they set and then resold it. At the end of 1567, they arrested all the peasants who tried to avoid that wine tribute. The poor began to starve, whole families were dying, and a rebellion broke out, which was crushed in blood. It was not until 1870 that Empress Maria Theresa proclaimed the Croatian Estate Regulation, which set maximum dues for the peasants and protected them from the arbitrariness of their lords.
At that time, Ljudevit Gaj, the leader of the Croatian National Revival, an Illyrian, linguist, writer and politician, had already returned from Zagreb to his native Krapina, and the Starohrvatska Belina grape was among the most widespread varieties in the Zagorje region. In the vineyard's restoration after phylloxera, only Belina's varieties are mentioned without specifying which one exactly. Today we know that among them were Styrian Belina, Smudna, Mala, Svetočriška, Hižakovečka and Šemnička belina, as well as related varieties with different names, such as Črnina Kesna and Kožjak Bijeli.
Saved from oblivion
In 2005, team from Zagorje began revitalizing native grape varieties with the help of local institutions, the Faculty of Agriculture and the company Trgocentar. A year later, they found three vines of Starohrvatska Belina in the yard of Gaja's house. They propagated them and planted them in a small bank of Zagorje varieties in the Grozaj family's vineyard in Donja Pecečine, thus saving our vine of the world's most important variety from oblivion.
Pleasant, fresh, yet delicate was the first impression after tasting the Starohrvatska Belina, which in Zagorje is also called Belina Bijela Velika and Krapinska Belina. In the Green Book of Native Grape Varieties, the authors state that it was used to produce light, bulk wines for everyday consumption, but they also add that its importance is much greater than its qualitative potential.
Without Belina, there would be no Tokaji
Starohrvatska Belina is the parent of at least 81 varieties grown worldwide, writes Jancis Robinson in the epochal book Wine Grapes, in which she and her collaborators described 1,368 grape varieties. Through natural crossbreeding with Pinot, in ancient times when there was only the red variety, it gave rise to Chardonnay, white and red Gamay, Melon de Bourgogne, Sacy, Aligoté, and a considerable number of lesser-known varieties. From relationships with other lovers, Riesling, Blaufränkisch and Furmint were born. The latter is the grape variety Croats call Moslavac or Pušipel and the Slovenians Šipon. It is the main variety for producing the famous Hungarian Tokaji, which is affectionately nicknamed the wine of kings and king of wines.
Starohrvatska belina is among the first varieties that humans cultivated, alongside pinot and traminer (savagnin). During the Middle Ages it was grown throughout Europe. The German physician and botanist Hieronymus Bock mentions it in 1531 in his Book of Herbs (Kräuterbuch). Its origin is not clear. Jancis Robinson writes that it most likely originates from the area of present-day northeastern France and southwestern Germany, but also notes possible Eastern European roots. One hypothesis suggests that the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Probus gifted vines from his native Pannonia to the Gauls in the second half of the 3rd century, and that these were specifically the gouais variety, or Starohrvatska Belina .
Sparkling wine is better than still one
Using the classic bottle-fermentation method, a sparkling white wine was also made in Zagorje. It was a part of the Protection and Revitalization of Native Grape Varieties of Croatian Zagorje project, and sparkling is better than the still wine from that variety.
