Gary: Hello everybody and welcome to wine library tv. I am your host, Gary Vaynerchuk. And this my friends is the thunder show a.k.a. the internet’s most passionate wine program and we are here today and we are talking about Croatian wine. A lot of people ask, a bunch of people who just came if they have had Croatian wine. They have not. The majority was 90 percent. A lot of people have not have experienced the Croatian wine but what’s going on in Eastern Europe is something that should not be overlooked. There are a lot of interesting wines being put out. This was sent to us by Ray Phoenix. We appreciate it. And what’s really a lot of fun is trying all these different parts of the world. So I’m gonna jump into this 3 Croatian wines in a minute. Croatian is very in stingy. You gotta understand that it’s really broken up in 2 general areas. What’s going on the coast land and what’s going on the continental middle. The continental middle is just devoured, devoured my probably favorite word, just completely covered in white wine varietals, a lot of cheap white wines that really aren’t that exciting or really high quality. Croatia as a whole is producing 50 million bottles of wine. So it’s not just your little spots, you know, different areas. And Croatian has a long, long history of trading very interesting wines. The island of Hvar is really where some of interesting wine is coming from including the Plavec Mali which is the center of the zymba milk grape. So we’ll get into that in a little bit. 67 percent of the wine coming out of Croatia is white wine with 1 percent rosane and the remainder being red wine. So you know just a very interesting area that has a lot of potential, a lot of the wines are closely Italian border like our first wine which is a malvazija. You know, so malvazija which is a great it does a lot of good work in Italy are also does some interesting stuff in Croatia. So really excited about trying these 3 wines and Croatia is expanding our pallet, trying different things that is always or emo our call, our battle cry oh, you know the kinda thing from the W’s, you know, that kind of thing. So I’m very excited about expanding my pallets, expanding your pallets, expanding Matt’s pallets, expanding everybody’s pallets. Talking about expanding pallets, we continue in opening sports packs. Matt, this has become one of my favorite things. Now this is a pack of basketball cards. You remember skybox of classic. This is the 94, 95 skybox. Let’s see what we got out here. we got a rookie, Mr. Watson, Jamie Watson, remember him, he did too much damage. Terry Comets very solid basketball player, remember him? How about this, Charlie Ward, former iceman winner turn New York Nick, he was a lot of fun, french. This is, what’s his name, Eddie Jones, loved Eddie Jones, had a good career. Grant Long, big bomb. Carl Malone turned into a wrestler. He was a wacky guy. Wow, look at this. Nice little card from Shaquille O’neil, it’s a special card. This probably from the 20, 30 bucks of one points coz Shaq was the man. So this is a Shaq card, put that aside, and we’re gonna make a couple of bucks in ebay. Sam Kins, teaky Sam Kins, he was terrible. Wayman Tisdale bomb. Duckaye Butambo still playing. Brian Shaw scrappy. And Scottie Blitz hated, hated him for some reason. He was a bull, was he at one point? Yeah, he was a bull. I hate all those bulls. Anyway, lot of fun with the basketball cards, let’s get right into the wine. Vivoda Malvazija, this is a malvazija, very close to the Italian border from ester, 13 US dollars. This is a very aromatic and exciting white grape that a lot of people I think will be turned on to in the coming years. I remember wild horse in California jumped around and play with malvazija for a little while. And kinda with some mixed results. Very golden as you can tell on the color. Let’s give it a sniffy sniff. Again really interesting like peach coblet component bouncing through the nose which is quite nice. Very spritzy, there’s a little woodiness coming from the nose as well. Not too bad. Very, very acidic, spritzy on the nose. Let’s give it a whirl. Nice acidity in the mid pallet. But kinda, my gosh, hello casper, the friendly, friendly, friendly ghost but this time it’s evil casper. The mean mean wine ghost because this wine just disappears on your pallet. I was to go into my spill and the wine completely disappeared in my pallet which is very disappointing. The only thing I’m left with now is some wood in my mouth and I’m not really that happy having this which wood in my mouth right now. So let me give it one more shot. I get a little lemon peel on the flavor profile. Actually a little bit like watermelon juice flavors, they’re really quick. Right after the lemon peel, watermelon, well this might will disappear. Left off a lot of acid and a lot of wood. I find this a mess of the wine. 13 dollars, 13 being unlucky in this situation, I’m gonna score this wine 70 points. It’s got a little kind of flavoring going on so it’s not completely a waste of time but I just don’t see a lot of people really enjoying this wine whatsoever. Very hot, acidic, off-balanced, too much wood, none of the fruit, not a great wine. Real tough start for Croatia. Interesting. Now let’s move on. Now you will find out. This is Kutjevo. This is a gold medal winner Mihalj. Interesting, this is from the Graevina grape which is also known as welsh reesling which is a very old school eastern European grape. This is 15 dollars. You’ll see a lot of graevina which is really the grape that you most see planted in Croatia. And so again you’re talking about a grape for all that you might more familias as welsh reesling. 15 bones, let’s see what’s going on here. Good color, spritzy, Matt can you see that? Get a little bit of that spritz. As you can see it’s really dying now. Just a little freshness. And look at the bottle, still doing it’s thing, lot of fun. Catch that? Kinda neat. But then it goes away little that acid. Getting excited doing it’s thing. Let’s get a sniffy sniff. I get a little cantelope coming through my nose. Sugar cane, yup cantelope and sugar cane, pretty one dimensional again. Not too exciting on the nose. Let’s give it a whirl. Good mouth feel. I really like it, it’s actually very pleasant on the mouth. A little sitty at the back end which is nice. Kinda like an imaginary blend of reesling sauvignon blanc which I like. It’s pretty good. Hold on one second. It does a nice job of hitting you with fresh acid right at the beginning. I could see this wine doing extremely well with oysters, clams, mussels, shellfish people, shellfish. I’m liking this wine. Very pleasant in the mouth feel. Again scoops of cantelope in my mouth, always happy, very melony and you know a studs like melon. I mean it’s really good stuff. I mean really, really crisp clean, well-structured, good balance, nice warming, not too hot, very serviceable wine. Again, doesn’t have the complexities, tho provoking, greatest novel of our generation, you know structure. But a very well made entry level type white wine at 15 US dollars suggested. Probably you could find it at 12, definite rivals as more exciting than a lot of pinot gricio. And even in the New Zealand sauvignon blancs are starting to get pricy. This is a nice little wine. I don’t, just like it at all, let me flip it, I kinda like it. I’m gonna go 88 points on this wine. I think it’s very good. A really great little white wine and definitely the kind of wine I think you should really try if you wanna try Croatian wine. And after the first one, I was like uh-oh we’re about to walk into another kianty type episode. But this one brought some serious, I wanna say serious but a light thunder. You know like a quick little storm lightning, a couple ding ding, you know kinda action on the side and then it’s out and it’s sunny again. You know Matt, you’re running home and ran back out coz 15 minutes later you play woofer ball again. That kind of thunder but ir’s very adequate, very solid, goes with a lot of foods. You know what I’m really actually thinking, man if I had a nice greek salad, some fresh cheese and fetuccini and like olives, this will go really well with that. So if you’re a greek salad fan, grasevina is up your alley. Go figure. I like it. If you don’t like cantaloupe, you’ll have a problem with this wine coz it’s really rolling, throwing deep. And finally the wine that I’ve definitely been most excited about, Zlatan Otok, 2004, 335 US dollars on this Plavac Mali, which is the grape from Croatia, a descendant of zinfandel, really, really interesting wine, the best wines I’ve ever had from Croatia have always from this grape variadle, Plavac, like Divac, Plavic, you know, really interesting wines, from the island of Havar, which is the south part of Croatia, gets tons of sun, really interesting wines, coming from this area, pricey, 35 bones, no joke, I mean, not to many people gonna roll the dice and pay 35 bones on a Croatian zinfandel, but, if you’re exploring, expanding your palette, if you’re in charge of a restaurant list, and you wanna mix it up, and bring a little thunder, I think this is a great way to go. Let’s give it a sniffy sniff. Interesting, I do get a zin like characteristics, black berry but I also get a little bit more earthiness, a little leather box coming through. If you never had a leather box, you wouldn’t understand. Very gamey, I mean, very gamey. Almost like going to animal kingdom in Disney, which I just did with Lizzy, it smells, it smells like a zebra, if that makes any sense. There is some dark chocolate, some black current, black berries, black, dark fruit coming through, no rasp berries or cherries here, strawberries, but no cherries here. Little arbacious action coming through now on the nose, which I like quite a bit, oregano kind of, kind of thing going on as well. Very complex interesting nose, very much soothing me up for an interesting experience, I’m excited, let’s give it a whirl. Yes! You know what, it’s been a long time, since we really, really, really did something on the thunder show, we’re about to do something on the thunder show. I am completely shock by this wine, I mean, as you could tell, hold on one second, before I get too crazy. Really?
Mott: Yeah. Little, little…heat.
Gary: Yeah, yeah, little heat, big wine. Guys, this wine is sensational, downright fundamentally sensational, huge, fruit, I, I might use this wine for thanksgiving, it’s that good. I had a couple of things in mind, I want to use the Shiphon zin, represent Bobby, but I’m gonna tell you something right now, this is probably one of the better wines that I, I mean, you know what, I’m switching seats again Mott, I’m that excited, get me over here now, I mean this is, this is no joke, I’m just moving out of excitement, this is no joke, probably one, one of the more interesting new wines I’ve had in a long time. Not only does it have the zinfandel fruit and structure, but its sweet tenance, right, the bitter part is sweet, like gorgeous fruit nectar just juicing jam for days, but then it gets arbacious, it’s earthy, it’s structured, it has Bordeaux like structure, the only thing that I’m sad about is that they know it, that’s why it’s 35 bucks, they know it, but if they didn’t know it, this wine, if it was 18 to 20 dollars, would be probably one of the premium values of Wine Library TV history. I’ve no idea, it comes from Vilindum, USA, we don’t carry these wines. Mott, we have got to find some websites to link this up, work for Matt and Ian. Imported by US wine importers, I’m gonna put Ian on this right now, I wanna carry this wine, 14.5 alcohol, Mott tasted a little bit, I’m gonna be honest with you, I think he got it, not that he got it mixed up, but I think, you’re tasting the tenance which are bitter and sometimes hot on your palette as well, this wine is boat load fruit, boat load of action, very delicious, extremely well made, this is a killer, this is absolutely a killer wine, I love it, I love it. Tobacco, stinky balm on the finish, which is great, but still covered by so much fruit, that it becomes a secondary flavor. New world, old world, I’m feeling it, I’m feeling it strong, I mean, I’m going 93 plus on this wine, I think it is remarkable, it is worth seeking out. I will be putting four bottles in my cellar, once I figured out how to get it, because, I want to see this evolve, I wanna see what happens, and no kidding, no kidding, this is the moment, right this second that I’ve come to realize, Croatia is on the scene, it’s coming, and the next five years, tons of you, tons of you, tons of them, tons of people out there, will be drinking, not tons, but the smart ones, the people that get it, are gonna be drinking Croatian wine. I mean, it’s a little pricey, but other than that, spectacular, I love to have this with ostrich, for example, which I just had in a south African restaurant in Disney this weekend, Gicko I think, it was unbelievable, great, and then we have this amazing ostrich dish that I just wish I had this wine, this wine rolls, it rolls deep, and it is absolutely worth seeking out. Happy birthday Mark Spalding, on your big third birthday. Question of the day, the best wine you’ve every had from eastern Europe, and if you have none, say none, this is a good time to comment. You, with a little bit of me, we’re changing the wine world, and we really are, I mean, this Croatian wine, just change my wine world. See you next time.
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