I am in Cavtat, the hometown of one of the most famous Croatian painter Vlaho Bukovac. Wherever I look I can fall in love with what I see. It is a city that opens your heart, and in it I always want to come back. I wander the cobbled streets looking for a Bukovac house which is located in the old town.
This is a typical urban house of the 19th century. Particularly interesting are the wall paintings of the young Bukovac which cover the old walls in the eastern part of the house.
Cavtat was founded by Illyrians few centuries BC. Shortly before the birth of Christ the Romans took Epidaurum and proceeded by his own rules to develop the city, so at that time it was quite large. The whole Zupa Bay was a city.
The great earthquake that came after this great construction, destroyed most of the city. Legend says, and some historians wrote that in central part of the Zupa Bay some two or three kilometers behind the island of Supetar covered by seabed, there is today a pure gold statue of Zeus high 16 meters.
The story of the golden statue of the god Zeus was told to me by Andro Crvik, one of the leading Croatian wine producers from Cilipi near Dubrovnik.
I remember the first conversation with Andro. I was preparing the recording of the series of Croatian wine varieties and agreed to shoot with winery Crvik. Extremely charming, polite and eloquent Andro on my question with whom I am speaking, in front of cameras replied:
"You have to talk to Peter to work a little, these young people would just like to have fun, nothing else, and they do not care about anything."
We arranged shooting in a few weeks.
Before shooting, I spoke with a wine critic Sasa Spiranec who, when asked about the winery Crvik among other superlatives said: "... only when the son Peter entered the winery, and he entered active in the creation of wine, Peter who graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture at the Univesity of Zagreb, and had an incredible passion for wines as such a young man, which is really rare to see, then they add an extra zest to the quality, and their wines are now truly a class among the Dalmatian wines.
Most importantly, they interpret the great terroir of the Dubrovnik Malvasia, and their red wines, Merlot and Cabernet primarily, are one of the best red wines of Bordeaux varieties in Dalmatia. "
It quickly became clear to me that these two create a great and very interesting team. Father Andro has set the entire business on its feet and son Peter gave new impetus to the quality.
Their most important grape variety is Dubrovnik’s malvasia. In Konavle it is produced sweet and very often made as dry wine. It is a rich and complex wine. There is no connection to the Istrian Malvasia white, but this is a variety which is also called the Mediterranean and Malvasia delle Lipari, Malvasia di Sardegna, Greco di Gerace and Malvasia de Sitges.
I asked Peter where name Tezoro is coming from?
"It's an interesting story. First of all, the malvasia is guarded Dubrovnik’s treasure in Konavle. For this reason, I wanted to connect it with the Dubrovnik’s history and culture, and Marin Drzic was there, our great inspiration, and in one of his works, ”Skup”, the main object around which the story is about, is the treasure that is hidden by the father from the family, because he loved it and wanted it all to himself, he called it “my tezoro, my tezoro” my treasure, my tresure. And that's why I called this wine Tezoro.
So the Malvasia is known accurately from 1383, when it was written that one doctor to his patient's needs requested from the Government, the Council, a few liters of that malvasia. Primarily, there was not enough of it. Malvasia is usually very sensitive to peronospore, powdery mildew, botrytis and it was not easy to protect it. For all these reasons malvasia was very rare. It is a small berry that does not give much kg of fruit on the grapewine, and this berry was not really productive, so it was really a rarity and used only as medicine, concentrated.
Historic moment for Malvasia occurred 1424 when the Malvasia grape variety as the wine name was first time mentioned in Croatia. This was in the law of the Republic of Dubrovnik. The law said that any wine has a price limit, but whoever produces Malvasia has no limit and can put any price he wants. "
From Cavtat I am going to the city about whom are written numerous books, countless songs sung. Here you can touch history. It is a city where are encountered cultural heritage and modern life. The whole world admires it, those who visit it seek paradise on Earth. Simply put, it is an outdoor museum – (unique) one and only
Dubrovnik !!
Nice
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Deletethanks!!!