Tomic Wine Cellar in Downtown Jelsa Opening for the Season on Tuesday

Looking to sample the wines of Hvar or perhaps enjoy a more intimate social experience before or after dinner?

As is the case every year, Andro Tomic opens up the cellar in his town house in the heart of Jelsa, so that guests can come and enjoy his wines in a cosy atmosphere.

The cellar will be opening for the season this Tuesday, July 1, and wine will be served from 19:30 to 24:00 daily. Come and enjoy a glass or buy a few bottles. A friendly welcome is guaranteed, the perfect wasy to compliment a great meal in one of Jelsa's fine restaurants.

To find the Tomic home, simply go to the church behind the main square and walk 30 metres up the small street leading into the old town, and you will see the konoba on the left. 

What are predicate wines?

A courier of the now famous cellars of Schloss Johannisberg in 1775. went to get official permission to start the harvest, but he was several weeks too late because bandits kidnapped him. When he came back, the mold had already attacked the grapes and so "poor cellarer" became responsible for the first late harvest. Fortunately, the grapes were already mature enough, so it was not destroyed by mildew, on the contrary, it enriched the wine. Thus was created a new style of wine – predicate wines.

Predicate wines are quality wines which satisfy the special requirements prescribed. These are wines that in good years and appropriate conditions of ripening grapes on the vine, and depending on their degree of overripe and time of harvesting and processing, achieve a special quality. Croatian law of wine distinguishes five types of predicate wines that can carry tags: late harvest, selected harvest, selected harvest of berries, selected harvest of dried berries and ice wine.

From Bread to Dessert with Tomic Hektorovich

It is widely known that Prosek is a dessert wine, but did you know that Prosek is also used to make a dessert?

This rather unusual fact was demonstrated earlier this week over lunch in Korcula Town at exclusive restaurant Kanavelic during a lunch for the crew and journalists from Touristar TV, who are in Croatia filming Legends of Croatia.

After an excellent lunch with accompanying wines, a piece of sweet cornbread was placed in front of each guest. And so began the transformation from bread into dessert.

Just two ingredients were necessary: quality olive oil and a liberal splash of the Tomic Hektorovich, to produce a delicious and filling dessert to finish the meal.

What is the flavor and the bouquet of wine?

The easiest way to decribe the aroma of wine is the sensation which we are detecting with our noses.  Different varieties of vines containing different aromatic substances. Until today, scientists have defined about 1300 different compounds in grapes, must and wine, and about 1,000 of them belong to the aroma compounds. Those 1000 aromatic compounds occupies only about 1% of all substances in wine, but regardless that content is so small, the impact on the sensory evaluation is huge. Part of these aromatic compounds are derived from grapes, and some of them are  generated by processing grapes, and finally, the ageing of wine.

Scents of wine that originate from grapes are called the primary, and scents that arise in the period between harvest and fermentation are called secondary aromas of wine. Bouquet in a wine dictionary is a common designation for tertiary (aroma that is due to fermentation) and quaternary aroma of wine (also called a bouquet of maturity and aging). As wine is maturing, the initial flavors are  degraded and transforming into a quaternary bouquet of wine. Wine loses fruity scents, freshness and varietal characteristics and gets a separate bouquet of age.

French Paradox

The term "French paradox" implies a somehow unusual situation in which French people suffer much less frequently from diseases of the heart and blood vessels, while at the same time consuming significant amounts of fat and alcohol, especially wine. The question is: What is it in the French diet that protects them? The result of scientific effort has linked red wine and health. The protective effect of wine on the heart and blood vessels has been  attributed to a substance called resveratrol. These phytochemicals are found in grapes and are responsible for many positive effects of wine.  Darker wines (opaque) should contain more resveratrol, although it may not always be so. Resveratrol richest wines are shiraz, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, etc. An important aspect of the French paradox refers to the cultural importance of the food in the daily lives of the French. For them, eating is a pleasure, not just satisfying nutritional needs. 

A New Tomic Wine Label at Grand Prix Mornar in Split

Andro Tomic was in Split night enjoying the excellent night time regatta, Grand Prix Mornar on West Coast riva, the culmination of a few days of competitive sailing in the city.

Guests enjoyed the event, which was washed down with a glass or two of the Tomic Plavac 2012, and Bastijana produced a special label for the event - see below.