On Friday, November 30, Kutjevo winery ended with the regular grape harvest, the grape harvest for the award-winning line and this year’s platinum from Decanter – Graševina de Gotho. The grapes for the mentioned line were picked at Vetovo vineyard planted in 1989.
“With reduced yields and the overall ability of the vine to keep the grapes healthy until late autumn, we have been given the opportunity to harvest late. The yield per hectare will not exceed 5 tons, and the harvest itself took place on 20 hectares. The density of planting vineyards is 4,000 vines per hectare, which provides each plant with 2.52 square meters of living space. In the process of processing, we decided to carry out cold maceration after the harvest for 24 hours at lower temperatures, below 10 ° C, to extract the color, tannins and aromatic substances found in the skin of grapes, and in the process are converted into must and give the wine complexity, rich aromas and extremely well express the potential of the Kutjevo terroir “, says the head oenologist Ivan Marinclin.
Graševina de Gotho represents a more complex, elegant and refined line of premium wines, and the very idea of creating the line arose in 2004 when the grapes for the said line were harvested from several different wine-growing appellations. In the process of researching the ideal one for a wine that will show a different face of Graševina grape variety the guiding thought was a later harvest that will bring a specific character and with which a stylized and far more complex white wine can be achieved. With countless visits to vineyards and detailed research, it was concluded that one such wine should and deserves to have precisely defined parameters, ie vineyard, year, quantity of grapes and the planned direction and technology of production.
“From the beginning, we believed in viticultural appelations of Kutjevo winery where the soil is not too rich, it is temperate, the vine is well rooted, there is no stress on drought, rain and other adverse conditions. Grapes for Graševina de Gotho are harvested by hand, and with 20 to 30 percent of naturally dried grapes on the vine”, the head oenologist explained the origin of the award-winning wine.
“At the time of investing in production and the new direction of premium wine lines, a lot of effort was invested in the presentation and branding so that people could understand the process of creation and quality of wines that we intended to produce in limited quantities. Premium lines are intended for HoReCa sales channels and specialized wine shops. The platinum medal from London arrived as the perfect reward for work, effort and time invested. We have always been aware that the Graševina variety deserves to be at the very top of the world’s wine and deserves international publicity. Kutjevo winery has the chance to grow grapes in ideal terroir, ideal climate, in fact, all the necessary prerequisites for the production of high and premium quality wines.