Stina - Pošip, Dalmatia, Croatia (2022)

TASTING NOTES

"A classic, saline, salty, ripe citrus-lemon-inflected posip from the island of Brac, complex and compelling, so stony, like licking an oyster shell, with superb length. Really quite magical stuff."  John Szabo, MS - 93 pts

he grapes are harvested by hand, cooled prior to vinification and protected from oxygenation throughout. Two-thirds of the grapes are gently pressed; the remaining third is left to macerate on the skins for six hours. The fermentation is in stainless steel tanks. Natural selected yeast. Aged on lees in stainless steel for up to 6 months.

Wine making is an ancient tradition in and around the island of Brač, with deep roots and a long history dating back to when the Greeks introduced the first vines there around the 5th century BC. The winery that is today home to Stina, dates back to 1903 and is believed to be the closest in the world to the actual sea, enabling the workers in the old days to simply roll the barrels directly from land to ship.  It was in 2009, after the devastation of phylloxera, that production of wine in Brač was revived with the arrival of Jako Andabak and the birth of Stina.

​Stainless steel fermentation and aging on the fine lees. 

Stina's vineyards on the island are in the most extreme locations, imbedded in crushed stone, and should be on every wine adventurer's bucket-list. It is difficult to understand how the vines were first planted, let alone maintained and harvested. In places the gradient exceeds 45° with vines planted at up to 500m above sea level. Skeletal, stony, south-facing slopes with maximum exposure to the sun and the sea breezes.