Last fall I attended a tasting on Plavac Mali; I also brought one bottle with me: a 2010 Matuško Dingač - the wine that ended up being the crowd favorite, even if I myself am not the biggest fan of the house style. We also had one Zinfandel for comparative purposes - after all, it is one of the parents of this wonderful Croatian variety!
The person who arranged the tasting wanted us also to rate the wines after we had tasted them. Everybody got three points that we could distribute freely to the wines however we wanted to, ie. one point for three different wines, three points to one very special wine or one point for one and two points for another wine.
Here is the final ranking of the wines, including the points the wines got (and my personal rating in parentheses):
1 - 2010 Matuško Dingač, 8 pts. (90)
2 - 2014 Matuško Dingač, 4 pts. (82)
2 - 2016 Ivica Radović Reserve Dingač, 4 pts. (88)
3 - 2014 Saints Hills Plavac Mali Dingač Sv. Lucia, 3 pts. (87)
3 - 2015 Violić Jurica Dingač, 3 pts. (92)
3 - 2017 Vinarija Ponos Dingač, 3 pts. (92)
4 - 2013 Arambašić Plavac Mali Telus, 2 pts. (89)
4 - 2015 Terra Madre Plavac Mali Barrique, 2 pts. (81)
5 - 2014 Škar Winery Plavac Mali Lekri, 1 pt. (90)
NR - 2021 Ravenswood Zinfandel Old Vine Lodi (76)
- 2017 Vinarija Ponos Dingač - Croatia, Dalmatia, Srednja i južna Dalmacija, Pelješac (14.11.2023)
100% Plavac Mali from vineyards in the Dingač appellation. 15,8% alcohol.
Very dark, somewhat translucent and quite youthful black cherry color. The nose feels dark-toned but also surprisingly clean, vibrant and fruity with juicy aromas of brambly blackberries, some black cherries, light blueberry tones, a little bit of dark plummy fruit, a hint of cloves and a touch of more savory, earthy spices. The wine feels vibrant and almost exuberant with its ripe fruit flavors. The overall feel is richly-fruited and full-bodied with intense flavors of black cherries, some raisiny tones, a little bit of blueberries, light evolved gamey tones, a hint of boysenberry jam and a touch of sweet, exotic spices. True to the classic Dingač style, the wine is slightly hot with its high alcohol, but also surprisingly high in acidity with assertive, grippy tannins. The finish is rich, warm and grippy with a long, intensely flavored aftertaste of blueberries and boysenberry jam, some meaty notes of umami, a little bit of extracted bitterness, light raisiny nuances, a ferrous hint of blood and a touch of exotic spices.
A wonderfully clean, vibrant and impressively intense Dingač that is just bursting with flavor. Although the 15,8% ABV feels a bit too hot for me, the overall feel is still surprisingly balanced and harmonious - the wine doesn't feel too heavy, overripe or excessively extracted. There are some dried-fruit flavors, but the wine doesn't come across as too pruney - although I think the grapes might've benefited a little had they been picked a bit earlier. Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable Dingač that is very true to the region and the variety. The wine got 3 points from the ten participants in our tasting of nine Plavac Malis, making it finish on shared third place.
(92 points) - 2015 Terra Madre Plavac Mali Barrique - Croatia, Dalmatia, Srednja i južna Dalmacija, Neretva (14.11.2023)
100% Plavac Mali from Komarna. Aged in barriques. 14% alcohol, 3 g/l residual sugar and 4,9 g/l acidity.
Rather dark and moderately translucent cherry-red color. The nose feels pungent, meaty and odd with quite oxidative aromas of smoke, some earthy tones, a little bit of soy sauce, a hint of strawberry and a touch of alcohol. The wine feels restrained and somewhat oxidative on the palate with a moderately full body and flavors of ripe blackberries, some crunchy crowberries, a little bit of gamey meat, light earthy tones, a hint of sour cherry bitterness and a touch of soy sauce. The acidity feels medium-to-moderately high and the tannins come across as rather grippy. The finish is rather long, somewhat warm and quite grippy with a relatively light aftertaste of brambly raspberries, some sour cherry bitterness, light tart notes of red plums, a little bit of earth and an oxidative hint of soy sauce.
I was greatly surprised how oxidative this wine turned out to be. It felt as if the wine had been kept in too warm temperatures since release (and I would not be surprised if that were the case, since this same vintage has been available here for more than four years!) because a typical Plavac Mali shouldn't feel this old and oxidative at 8 years of age. I would mark the wine as flawed / oxidized, but since some people in our tasting thought the wine was quite lovely, I'm scoring it as if the wine was performing as it should. At 19,30€ the wine was just poor value. It got 2 points from the ten participants in our tasting of nine Plavac Malis, making it finish on fourth place.
(81 points) - 2016 Ivica Radović Reserve Dingač - Croatia, Dalmatia, Srednja i južna Dalmacija, Pelješac (14.11.2023)
100% Plavac Mali from vineyards in the Dingač appellation. 15,5% alcohol.
Dark, somewhat tertiary blackish-red color with an evolved rusty-brown hue. The nose feels sweetish and moderately evolved with somewhat reticent aromas of wizened black cherries, some earthy notes, a little bit of dark plummy fruit, light strawberry tones, a hint of blackberry jam and a raisiny touch of dried fruits. The wine feels silky, rich and somewhat evolved on the palate with a full body and ripe flavors of wizened figs, some earthy exotic spices, light sweeter notes of Christmas spices, a little bit of dried dates, a hint of raisiny dark fruit and a touch of strawberry jam. The high alcohol lends some warmth to the palate and the overall feel is firm and textural with the rather high acidity and ample, fine-grained and moderately grippy tannins. The finish is warm, almost hot and quite grippy with a long, sweet-toned aftertaste of licorice and dried dates, some raisiny tones, a little bit of exotic spices, light crunchy notes of fresh red plums, a hint of wizened black cherries and a touch of blackberry jam.
A nice and somewhat aged Dingac that is quite hot, solar and pruney - as seems to be typical of the appellation. I prefer wines that aren't this "roasted" and sunny in character, showing more sense of freshness and vibrancy, but as far as the "classic" Dingač wines come, this is pretty good stuff. The wine got 4 points from the ten participants in our tasting of nine Plavac Malis, making it finish on shared second place.
(88 points) - 2015 Violić Jurica Dingač - Croatia, Dalmatia, Srednja i južna Dalmacija, Pelješac (14.11.2023)
The label says "Vrhunsko Suho Vino Barrique". 100% Plavac Mali from vineyards in the Dingač appellation. 14,9% alcohol.
Vibrant, somewhat translucent blood-red color. The nose feels fragrant and sweet with ripe aromas of boysenberries and black raspberries, some licorice tones, a little bit of savory wood spice, light cherry nuances, a hint of wild strawberries and a developed touch of wizened blueberries. The wine feels vibrant and juicy on the palate with a rather full body and intense flavors of cherry marmalade and boysenberries, some strawberry jam, light sunny notes of wizened dark fruits and raisiny nuances, light woody tones, a hint of balsamic VA and a touch of earth. The overall feel is pretty muscular and tightly-knit, thanks to the rather high acidity and quite grippy tannins. The finish is long, savory and quite grippy with an intense aftertaste of ripe dark plums, some wizened boysenberries, a little bit of dark raisiny fruit, light woody notes of savory oak spice, hints of earth and licorice root and a touch of cherry marmalade. The high alcohol makes the wine end on a moderately warm note.
A nice, vibrant and structured Dingač that feels very ripe and solar, as is so typical of the appellation, yet the wine doesn't come across as one bit flabby or overripe. The fruit profile is quite sweet-toned and the alcohol shows through to some degree, but for such a big and ripe wine, the wine shows good sense of freshness and harmony. As the wine comes across as pretty youthful for an eight-year old Dingač, I have a hunch this wine will at least keep just fine for many more years. I guess the tannins could soften a bit more with additional aging, but otherwise the wine is good to go right now. The wine got 3 points from the ten participants in our tasting of nine Plavac Malis, making it finish on shared third place. Nice stuff, recommended.
(92 points) - 2014 Škar Winery Plavac Mali Lekri - Croatia, Dalmatia, Srednja i južna Dalmacija, Pelješac (14.11.2023)
To my understanding, the wine is made with fruit sourced from vineyards in Pelješac, but vinified in the city of Dubrovnik. 14% alcohol.
Rather deep, moderately opaque and still quite youthful black cherry color. The nose feels ripe, dark-toned and somewhat tertiary with sunny aromas of sweet black cherries, some blueberries, light oxidative notes of soy sauce, light gamey tones, a woody hint of savory oak spice and a touch of dried dark fruits. The wine feels juicy, dry and moderately evolved on the palate with a medium body and sunny flavors of dark forest fruits, some ripe black raspberry tones, a little bit of licorice, light evolved gamey notes, a hint of wizened black cherries and an oxidative touch of soy sauce. At first the structure seems to rely mostly on the rather high acidity as the tannins come across as quite ripe and gentle, but they slowly pile up on the gums, turning the wine quite grippy after all. The finish is evolved, savory and moderately grippy with a long aftertaste of dark forest fruits, some wizened black cherries, a little bit of gamey meat, light licorice tones, a hint of earth and an oxidative touch of soy sauce.
I was somewhat surprised how evolved the wine turned out to be. The appearance was still pretty youthful, but the aromas and flavors definitely had some oxidative qualities to them. Nevertheless, this was a quite pleasant and harmonious effort. I can imagine it must've been a tad better when it was without any oxidative nuances, but the wine is still thoroughly enjoyable. The wine got 1 point from the ten participants in our tasting of nine Plavac Malis, making it finish on fifth place.
(90 points) - 2014 Saints Hills Plavac Mali Dingač Sv. Lucia - Croatia, Dalmatia, Srednja i južna Dalmacija, Pelješac (14.11.2023)
100% Plavac Mali from the Sv. Lucia vineyard in the Dingač appellation. Aged for 24 months in new French oak barriques. 13,5% alcohol.
Somewhat translucent and moderately evolved maroon color. The nose feels fragrant, sweet and moderately evolved with complex aromas of wizened red fruits, some ripe black cherries, a little bit of licorice, light raisiny tones, a hint of toasty oak spice and a touch of boysenberry jam. The wine feels juicy, rich and silky on the palate with a full body and somewhat evolved flavors of dried dates and raisiny dark fruit, some toasty notes of vanilla and sweet oak spice, light caramel nuances, a little bit of strawberry jam, a chocolatey hint of mocha oak and a touch of wizened red plums. The overall feel is quite balanced with the rather high acidity and ample yet very ripe and fine-grained tannins that slowly grow in power and grip. The finish is rich, spicy and rather grippy with a quite long aftertaste of raisiny dark fruits and dried dates, some wizened cherry tones, a little bit of toasty mocha oak and vanilla, light caramel nuances, a ferrous hint of blood and a savory touch of meaty umami.
A big, rich and quite polished Dingač that shows good sense of balance but otherwise comes across as pretty modern and anonymous in character. The big body, sunny fruit flavors and ample tannins would easily give away that this is a Dingač, but aromatically the wine feels more like any big and ripe new world wine; lots of ripe, sweet fruit, toasty mocha tones and vanilla. Even if the wine is showing some evolved signs and exhibits nice tertiary complexity, the toasty oak tones are still quite noticeably to the fore, somewhat obfuscating the finer nuances in the wine. Surprisingly though, the wine was relatively low in alcohol for a Dingač - probably due to the cooler and rainier vintage? All in all, this was not really a bad wine - stylistically just not my kind of thing. The wine got 3 points from the ten participants in our tasting of nine Plavac Malis, making it finish on shared third place.
(87 points) - 2013 Arambašić Plavac Mali Telus - Croatia, Dalmatia, Srednja i južna Dalmacija, Pelješac (14.11.2023)
100% Plavac Mali. 14% alcohol and 4,7 g/l acidity.
Quite translucent and somewhat evolved maroon color. The nose feels quite reticent with restrained aromas of ripe strawberries and red cherries, some earthy tones, a little bit of stony minerality and a hint of dried dark fruits. The wine feels savory, somewhat evolved and a bit restrained on the palate with a medium-to-moderately full body and dry flavors of dried dates and dark fruits, some earthy tones, a little bit of strawberry, light evolved notes of beef jerky, a hint of sour cherry bitterness and a touch of gravelly minerality. The medium acidity feels somewhat soft, so the structure relies mainly on the rather ample and grippy tannins. The finish is dry, savory and somewhat evolved with a long aftertaste of earth and wizened dark berries, some evolved beef jerky tones, a little bit of sour cherry bitterness, light dried-fruit flavors of raisins and dried dates, an oxidative hint of soy sauce and a touch of licorice root.
A quite balanced but also rather understated Plavac Mali. The wine feels evolved, but not particularly old yet. However, it feels like this hasn't been a grand vin to begin with, so I'm not really sure if the wine has developed anything of interest with age. Now this feels like and aged Plavac Mali, but not a particularly thrilling of complex at that. A nice wine, but nothing special to write home about. The wine got 2 points from the ten participants in our tasting of nine Plavac Malis, making it finish on fourth place. Somewhat worth the price at 16,19€.
(89 points) - 2014 Matuško Dingač - Croatia, Dalmatia, Srednja i južna Dalmacija, Pelješac (14.11.2023)
100% Plavac Mali from vineyards in the Dingač appellation. 14,5% alcohol.
Luminous, moderately translucent dark cherry-red color. The nose feels ridiculously open, sweet and voluptuous with mulled wine aromas of vanilla, cloves and cherry marmalade along with some lighter yet still similarly sweet nuances of nutmeg, a little bit of blueberry juice, light cherry pit tones and a hint of boysenberry. The wine feels ripe, expressive and dry yet at the same time ridiculously sweet-toned with a full body and intense flavors of strawberry jam, vanilla and coconut oak, some cloves, a little bit of wizened black cherries, light nutmeg tones, a hint of Bourbon caramel and a touch of dark raisiny fruit. The moderately high acidity and ample, grippy tannins lend impressive sense of structure to the wine. The finish is sweet, long and rather grippy with an intense mulled wine aftertaste of strawberry jam, some vanilla and clove, a little bit of raisiny fruit, light nutmeg tones, a hint of cherry pit and a caramelly touch of Bourbon.
I really don't understand these Matuško wines. The wines themselves are wonderfully vibrant, sinewy and intensely-flavored, but for some reason they want to mask away all the Plavac Mali nuances underneath with their ridiculously heavy-handed oak use. This results in a very atypical expression that doesn't taste like Dingač at all - this tastes mainly like a dry mulled wine that is fortified with Bourbon. I like the bright, structured wine that is there somewhere, but the end result is way too overdone for my taste. I can imagine this will get better with some aging, but I'm pretty sure no amount of aging will make all that sweet oak disappear. An oddball for sure. Nevertheless, the other people in the tasting liked the wine to some degree, so it got 4 points from the ten participants in our tasting of nine Plavac Malis, making it finish on shared second place. (82 points) - 2010 Matuško Dingač - Croatia, Dalmatia, Srednja i južna Dalmacija, Pelješac (14.11.2023)
100% Plavac Mali from vineyards in the Dingač appellation. 14,6% alcohol.
Moderately translucent and somewhat evolved pomegranate color. Typical of Matuško wines, the nose feels quite sweet and oaky with lush mulled wine aromas, but the overall feel is somewhat more restrained and a bit more fine-tuned than in younger wines with layered aromas of raisins, some wizened dark plums, a little bit of savory meaty character, light vanilla tones, a hint of cherry pits, a touch of cloves and a whiff of boysenberry jam. The wine feels quite silky and mellow at first, but the firm structure joins in on the backbeat. The wine is medium in body with layered flavors of boysenberries and ripe figs, some vanilla oak, a little bit of dried dates, light blueberry tones, a hint of cloves and a touch of toasty oak spice. The wine feels pretty structured with its medium-to-moderately high acidity and ample and quite grippy yet still somewhat resolved tannins. The finish is long, somewhat grippy and somewhat warm with a sweet-fruited aftertaste of blueberries, some vanilla, a little bit of dried dates, light oaky notes of cloves and toasted wood, a hint of raisiny dark fruits and a touch of boysenberry jam.
Age seems to have benefited the wine to some degree. It still retains that oddly sweet, almost mulled wine-like streak of sweet vanillin oak and cloves, the most oaky tones have subsided a little and the wine comes across as more like a Plavac Mali and less like a mulled wine which somebody forgot to sweeten. This is an odd bird for a Dingač, but still a surprisingly enjoyable and balanced effort for such a weird, big and oak-heavy wine. Priced according to its quality at 18€. Although not my favorite wine due to its atypical expression, the wine got 8 points from the ten participants in our tasting of nine Plavac Malis, making it finish on first place.
(90 points) - 2021 Ravenswood Zinfandel Old Vine Lodi - USA, California, Central Valley, Lodi (14.11.2023)
100% old-vine Zinfandel from Lodi. 14,5% alcohol, 4 g/l residual sugar and 4,7 g/l acidity.
Moderately translucent garnet color with a youthful blueish hue. The nose feels very sweet and super youthful with aromas of blackberries and almost overripe black raspberries, some strawberry jam tones, a little bit of blueberry, light cherry marmalade nuances, a hint of sweet vanilla oak and a touch of alcohol. The wine feels youthful, soft and rather jammy on the palate with a full body and sweet-toned flavors of blueberry jam and cherry marmalade, some vanilla oak tones, a little bit of candied primary fruit, toasty hints of sweet oak spice and a touch of overripe strawberries. The medium acidity and gentle tannins help very little with the soft, mellow structure. The finish is ripe, gently grippy and slightly warm with a soft, medium-long and quite sweet-toned aftertaste of cherry marmalade, some toasty oak spice, light vanilla tones, a little bit of overripe blackberry, a primary hint of fruit jellies and a touch of boysenberry jam.
This was a very disappointing Zinfandel that is all about jammy fruit, showing no real sense of freshness, complexity or structure. A very soft and ponderous effort that gets rather tiring quite quickly. Although the wine feels too candied and primary at the moment, I doubt the wine will turn particularly interesting or balanced with any amount of aging. Very overpriced for the quality at 19,99€. Avoid.
(76 points)
Posted from CellarTracker
I’m wondering if Hermann Müller ever made his own Müller-Thurgau wine.