Srpek sips a red with patrons as he discusses various Plavac Mali varieties. Their deeply imbedded knowledge of the industry and close ties with domestic vineyards allow newcomers to cultivate an understanding of Zagreb’s wine culture. The Srpeks, curators of these bottled stories, serve as interpreters to inquisitive travelers.
The building has the air of a timeworn library, each wine bottle containing a story as rich with history and culture as any book. Srepk details that “the name was already a brand that stood for quality, service and education.” Bornsteins occupies a 200-year-old cellar with vaulted brick ceilings and dark wood floors in upper town. Owners Ivan and Doris Srpek recognized the importance of the name when they took over the business four years ago. Borsnteins, being the first private wine shop in the entire region of former Yugoslavia, is synonymous with the up-and-coming wine scene in the city and the country as a whole. She mentions Bornstein Wine Bar and Shop, a name inevitably referenced in conversation about wine in Zagreb. Merlot streams into a shiny glass at the tip of her steady hand as she lists other shops in the area. Samek always keeps several bottles open and ready to pour for curious visitors.
Samek distinguishes several of the hundreds of bottles that line the walls, pointing out Purger (Zagreb local) favorites such as Korać, Tomac and Šember. Zagreb falls at the converging point of the cool but humid Zagorje, Plešivica and Prigorje wine sub regions of the Croatian uplands, making it central to many vineyards. Above the shop’s lone desktop computer is a map, hand-painted by a local artist, that depicts Croatia’s wine regions in vivid yellows, greens and pinks. Co-owner, Zina Samek, humbly shrugs, “It’s a shop like any other shop,” yet with a knowing smile adds, “but you have to be able to speak about the wine to sell the wine.” Samek discusses Vintesa’s wine collection with customers meandering through the shop and staring intently at the multitude of labels she gestures freely with her hands at the wooden racks, explaining that they are organized by region. The store’s bright colors are corralled by the three walls covered nearly floor to ceiling in the dark glass of wine bottles. Vinoteka Vintesa harbors its collection of exclusively Croatian labels in a sunny shop tucked away in an alley where it shares its address with a local pizzeria and small hostel. Zagreb vintners Vinoteka Vintesa, Bornstein Wine Bar and Shop and Stari Fijaker restaurant provide a capital entry point to the world of Croatian wine. The trick is having the opportunity to be introduced, after which Zagreb’s restaurants, bars, shops and locals themselves will take care of the rest. Benmosche’s story epitomizes the allure of Croatia’s wine to those who are introduced to it. Benmosche was also intrigued by the 2001 discovery of Zinfandel’s ancestor grape, Crljenak, being native to Croatia, so in 2006 he imported 1,500 Zinfandel from Napa Valley to grow the fruit in Dalmatia. Robert Benmosche, President and Chief Executive of American International Group, visited Croatia and fell in love with both the Adriatic Sea and the wine produced on its coasts. She points at the label of a Dingač reading “Bura” and says, “This is the wine that inspired Benmosche,” before she launches into an explanation.
Zina Samek, owner of Vinoteka Vintesa, in Zagreb, Croatia smiles as a bottle near the edge of the wood rack catches her eye.
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