Vino Brkic started with a whisper in the late 70s, Pasko Brkić planted vineyards in Čitluk—a wine district located just south of Mostar in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina—at 800-1,300 feet above sea level and built a modern wine cellar.

Pasko’s son, Josip, took over after he passed, and dedicated the focus primarily on the native varietals of Žilavka and Blatina. Josip also fell in love with organic practices in the early 2000s after attending an Organic Wine Expo in Italy. From there he embraced a commitment to create wines with life and only in these practices. Inspired by purity and balance of acidity, tannin, and texture, he converted the vineyards and cellar to biodynamic practices.

 The winemaking process is aligned with his farming practices: allowing nature to speak for itself. Strongly following biodynamic winemaking practices, the wine is made as naturally as possible, using all gravity in order to avoid pumps, gentle pressing, and exclusively fermented with native yeasts and non-filtered. Ageing is exclusively in large local Bosnian oak barrels.

Vinification: Fermented in open Bosnian oak barrels with native yeast fermentation. Undergoes full malolactic fermentation, then aged for 2 years on the lees in oak barrels. Bottled unfiltered.

Tasting Notes: Blatina is a unique and indigenous varietal found in Bosnia & Herzegovina that produces pretty, fresh reds with low alcohol and great acidity and minerality. It is a difficult grape to grow as the flowers of Blatina vine are female, meaning they need a different (male) variety to be grown alongside them to pollinate. For this reason, many producers plant Alicante Bouchet or other local varietals in their Blatina vineyards. It is arguably underappreciated amongst the locals, as we agree with Jancis Robinson when she says “Blatina provides exactly the sort of lighter, more elegant reds that many drinkers want”.

Josip’s Blatina comes from their Greda vineyard, on the plateau of the hillside. With the Vranac blended in for color, the wine appears to be a rich red, but when tasting is so delicate and light on its feet, with bright red fruits. The Blatina grape is often compared to a cross between Gamay and Sangiovese, and with some oak ageing here, the Plava Greda is akin to a structured Blaufrankisch or Cru Beaujolais.

-Vinum