Volarević (Komarna, Croatia)

In 2019, Hannes set himself the challenge of tasting twelve of the best Plavac Mali wines from Croatia to find out which producer really stood out. For him, the answer was clear: Volarević. What impressed us was not simply the power and concentration of the wines, but the combination of ripe fruit, freshness, structure and elegant tannins. Volarević showed us just how refined Plavac Mali can be.

The Volarević family's wine story began in 2005, when a father and his four sons, already successful agricultural entrepreneurs and owners of a large plant nursery, decided to take on a completely new challenge. Their ambition was to establish Plavac Mali as a Croatian heritage for future generations, under the family motto “We create tradition.” To do so, they created vineyards virtually from scratch in the rugged Komarna wine region, in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County on Croatia's southern Dalmatian coast. Thick Mediterranean scrub was cleared and the barren karst was worked before the first vines were planted in 2008 and 2009. Today the estate covers around 15 hectares, with 12 hectares of vines, approximately 90% of which are planted with Plavac Mali.

The vineyards are spectacularly exposed to the south, overlooking the Adriatic, with what the family calls three types of exposure: sun-vine, sun-rock and sun-sea. The conditions are extreme, with around 2,650 hours of sunshine, very little soil and approximately 50% exposed rock. Yet the nearby sea and, particularly, the cool nights of Komarna provide an important counterbalance to the Mediterranean heat, helping the grapes retain acidity and giving the wines greater freshness and balance.

Plavac Mali is Croatia's great indigenous red grape and is closely related to Zinfandel and Primitivo. It is a natural crossing of two Croatian varieties, Crljenak Kaštelanski and Dobričić. The grape thrives on the dry, rocky Dalmatian slopes, sending its roots deep into the porous limestone in search of water. It naturally produces wines that are deeply coloured, full-bodied, high in alcohol and rich in tannins and extract.

One of the things that makes Volarević particularly interesting is their approach to these difficult conditions. The vineyards are farmed organically, with minimal use of copper and sulphur, while weeds are removed manually to improve air circulation and sunlight exposure. In the winery, traditional oak-barrel maturation is combined with controlled fermentation and modern analytical technology.

The first Volarević wines came from the 2010 harvest, and the family has since built a reputation for producing distinctive, terroir-driven expressions of Plavac Mali. Their wines manage to capture the intense Mediterranean character of the grape while retaining the freshness that is so important in Komarna.

For us, Volarević represents a very different side of Croatian wine: a young family estate created from barren coastal rock, working with Croatia's great indigenous grape and producing wines that combine power with freshness, structure and elegance. And for Hannes, after tasting twelve of Croatia's leading Plavac Malis in 2019, Volarević was the producer that stood out.