In the period from July 4th to July 5th, the 15th anniversary Wine Festival of Zadar County, VINFEST Benkovac, was held with the participation of the contemporary artist Lola Escamez.
This event began with the conference “Challenges in Viticulture and Winemaking in Northern Dalmatia” organized on July 4 at the Benkovac Cultural Center by the City of Benkovac, the Ravni Kotari Tourist Board, and the Zadar County Winemakers Association, in cooperation with the Faculty of Agronomy, University of Zagreb.
In addition to topics related to challenges in viticulture and winemaking, the conference also presented the results of the cooperation between the City of Benkovac and the Municipality of Alenquer from Portugal, which has been successfully running for seven years and is based on the mutual exchange of indigenous wine varieties and the exchange of experiences.
As part of the event, a gala dinner was organized and awards were presented to the best winemakers in Zadar County for samples of their wines submitted for evaluation, which was traditionally organized on July 5, 2024, in the beautiful surroundings of Kaštela Benković in Benkovac.
The event was welcomed by County Prefect Božidar Longin, Mayor of the City of Benkovac Tomislav Bulić, Ivana Alpeza, president of the committee for evaluating submitted wine samples, and Professor Edi Maletić as a representative of the Faculty of Agriculture, and was officially opened by the Ambassador of Portugal to the Republic of Croatia, Maria Paula Leal Da Silva.
The Spanish artist Lola Escamez is particularly responsible for the decoration of the space, who created paintings made of wine by mixing the Portuguese wine Vital and the wine Pošip from the Benkovac vineyard as paint.
After the welcoming speeches and the ceremonial opening of the event, the results of this year’s wine judging were announced, and awards, bronze, silver and golden shoes, as well as medals and cups for the best wine producers were presented.
The best ˝Rose˝ at this year’s Vinfest was produced by OPG Branko Kutija from Lisičić, the best Maraština was produced by ˝Vino Karaba˝, and the best Plavina was produced by ˝Vino Vinketa˝. Karaba wines also won other championship titles at this festival, for white and red wines in the production process, which they won for their Maraština and Crljenak. The champion white wine on the market is also Pošip from Karaba Winery, and the champion red wine is Cabernet Sauvignon, produced by Tomislav Glavić’s Ker-Vin craft.
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon from Ker-vin was also the best-rated wine at this year’s event, taking home the award, which was established for the first time this year and is named after Željko Katuša, one of the initiators and founders of this festival, a top wine expert who passed away five years ago. It was a particularly emotional moment when Tomislav Glavić was presented with the award by Željko’s son Josip.
Let us remind you that Željko Katuša was also the recipient of the “Stjepan Bulić” award for his contribution to the improvement of viticulture, which the Dalmatian Cooperative Association awarded him at Sabatini 2017, held in Primošten, and we are particularly pleased that from this year onwards, the award for the best rated wine at VINFEST Benkovac will rightfully bear the name of this top wine expert who left an indelible mark on the field of viticulture and winemaking in the entire region.
Lordan Ljubenkov, President of the Cooperative Alliance of Dalmatia:
As an example of the extraordinary success that does not fail when the unity of the participants is achieved, the development of viticulture and winemaking in Zadar County is taken. The combination of knowledge, will and unity at the social and political level that took place in Ravni Kotari brings many different success stories. One of them is certainly Vinfest in Benkovac, which is growing year after year in every segment. It is therefore particularly significant that as part of this year’s program, a Conference was launched that took as its topic the current challenges faced by winegrowers and winemakers. In cooperation with numerous entities led by the City of Benkovac and the Tourist Board of the City of Benkovac, Vinfest was launched in 2010, which also included a gastronomic offer called “Bukara Benkovac”. At the Cooperative Alliance of Dalmatia, we have recognized the usefulness and interestingness of this event and based on that we have predicted a fruitful development. Since we want to encourage such projects in Dalmatia with our activities, we sincerely look forward to the successes that can be seen at this Vinfest 2024.
Source: Cooperative Union of Dalmatia
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