This is to plan your visit to the Degarra winery. You will find the address and the contact details inhere.
Strongly recommended is to get in touch, as offerings for tasting and finger food is seasonal and of course there is every years production highlights and specialties to experience.
The Degarra Winery has set a benchmark already. The winery main building has a barrique hall and a tasting room located in the former JNA (Yugoslavia National Army) barracks, above the Zadar settlement of Bokanjac.
The Degarra Core Competence of North-Dalmatian Grapes
The Degarra Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon und Syrah vines are a pronounced part of the Degarra Bonterra. The Plavina grape is for the Degarra Rosé wines sparklingPerla Rosé and Rosé. The Pošip vines are the most cultivated in all of northern Dalmatia to the south near Dubrovnik and is considered the queen of Dalmatian white vines. the Pošip is used for the Degarra Primo sparkling wine and of course for the superior Degarra Pošip.
From Zadar to Split is the main region for cultivating the Maraština vines which ist the Degarra Maraština and is also called Rukatac.
Meet the Degarra wine maker team:
Video: This is in Croatian language and was an intro of Degarra on HRT, Croatian TV. March 2021. You will see the Degarra team which set the winery in action and the creators of these fine wines. Even not being a native speaker it is nice to see the vibrations.
The Degarra winery and the Degarra team wish you a peaceful, blessed and reflective Christmas. A healthy and happy new year 2022. The year 2021, 2020 were marked with many challenges worldwide and many personal experiences are associated with these days. We wish you good luck and success for the times coming. We would like to sincerely thank all Degarra customers for a good business year 2021. You have all contributed to this: online, visitors to the Degarra winery and of course all restaurants that have Degarra wines on the menu. Thank you very much !
Thank You
There were many highlights in 2021. Such was the the Decanter award, which is an amazing appreciation for the work of the Degarra team. The Degarra website has been online since January 2021 and the number of visitors has been amazing. Example: In August 2021 we had the peak of 2500 visitors. This shows the interest in Degarra wines and what we do. Many thanks to all of our customers and fans of the Degarra winery. We will continue with this good work and we are very much looking forward to be there for you and share the good things in life with one another. Quality, understanding and togetherness is what we experience and always share.
Degarra has expanded a bit in the winery and the acreage, but it still remains special. Degarra is not a mass production and has the focus on being unique. The taste and quality are the criteria. That won’t change.
Degarra winery and the service team is glad to experience such an event hosted with Croatian wine. This shows again, that Croatian craft skills and wine making is appreciated and found its way even to the U.S. presidential inauguration.
A beneficial event to the country’s small wine industry
POTOMJE, Croatia, Jan 17 (Reuters) – A Croatian red wine will be among the wines served at the events on the Inauguration Day this week in Washington. The winery that produced the wine says: „We hope that the moment in the presidential spotlight, is also a boon to the country’s small wine industry“.
The wine, which sells for about $60-70 per bottle in the United States, is from the Benmosche Family Winery, which produces some 4,000 to 5,000 bottles of Zinfandel and Dingac a year.
Boris Mrgudic, Director of the Benmosche Family Winery, did not have any details about which particular lunch or dinner the wine would be served at during Wednesday’s Inauguration Day, when Democrat Joe Biden will be sworn in as president.
President-elect, Joe Biden, and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, are due to be sworn in on the steps of the Capitol on the 20th of January. The inauguration ceremony will be slightly more modest due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the ceremony will also be available to view virtually. After a tumultuous end to Donald Trump’s presidency, which saw violent demonstrations at the same sight of the upcoming inauguration, Joe Biden is hoping for a calmer period.
Long tradition of wine making
The Mrgudic family has been involved in wine production for 12 generations and went into business with late U.S. insurance executive Robert Benmosche, a great wine lover, after meeting him in the early 2000s.
The following shows building a new vineyard of Degarra Wine Zadar – This is during the planting of the vines for the POŠIP March 2019.
The new American President and his team will enjoy a touch of Croatia, when the wines from the Pelješac peninsular vineyards are served. The Croatian wine which ‚connects‘ both sides on the Atlantic, for although the vineyards are based in Croatia they are owned by an American family. At Joe Biden’s inauguration the wines Dingač and Zinfande from the Benmosche Family Winery are served. Truly a great promotion for Croatian wines, and indeed the Pelješac wines, as the whole event will be covered of all world’s media.
Passion for Croatian wine made this happen
So how did wines from Croatia end up on the table of the President’s inauguration? The vineyards in question were started by Robert H. Benmosche, the former head of the world’s largest insurance group, AIG, and a former advisor to President Barack Obama. Benmosche, who was a passionate lover of Dalmatian wines, planted the vines in 2006 on the terraced slopes of Dingač. After Benmosche passed away in 2015, but his family continued working on the vineyards. The wine making on Pelješac continued under the watchful eye of the famous winemaker, Marija Mrgudić, who Benmosche refered to as his “boss” when he arrived in Pelješac. In fact, Benmosche fell in love with the area so much that he bought a luxurious sea-front villa in Dubrovnik.
The winery is located on the hilly slopes of the Peljesac peninsula near the popular tourist destination of Dubrovnik.
“This news will certainly contribute to promotion of the Croatian wines which is very important, as Croatia is a small wine producer and still not very competitive on the global markets,” Mrgudic said.
(Reporting by Antonio Bronic and Igor Ilic Editing by Frances Kerry)
Mate Pestić from Zadar in northern Dalmatia, co-owner of the Degarra garage winery, calls himself a construction worker who makes heating elements and, with his friend Dane Šulentić and his wife Dragana, were choosing a wine story out of “pure ego-trip”. Or the friendship with Dragana was the cause, while the Degarra decision was a completely logical step …
Mate and Dragana met by chance, he recalls. It was four years ago, after Mate had spent some time on Fruška Gora, where he met local winemaker Miroslav Kovačević and made friends.
“It was immediately after Miroslav joined the wine magnate and bought Iriški Cellars, which took him overnight from 300,000 liters to an incredible 2.5 million liters per year. I enjoyed his Chardonnays and didn’t hide my excitement. Then Dane and Dragana came to my company in Zadar to buy central heating for their country house. It was arranged quickly and when I came to install it I was surprised by bottles of Kovačević’s wine that I saw there. I spoke out loud as I couldn’t get over the surprise of seeing wines I recently enjoyed on Fruška Gora. Dragana listened very carefully to me and did not hide her joy at hearing the commendations I had for the Chardonnay. She also listened when I bought his most famous red wine, the Aurelius Coupage, not described with praise, and I said it was worthless and couldn’t understand why Kovačević made red wine in the first place. When I finished my presentation, Dragana introduced herself and revealed that until four months ago she was the former head oenologist at the Kovačević winery, and these wines are her product! I blushed, wanted to leave, but she told me it was okay to say something is wrong. But behind every wine, even those that are personally not perceived as good, there are great efforts, commitment and love and it does not necessarily mean that the winemaker made mistakes or was “to blame”, there are many factors that make a wine. And when, after so much energy, someone backs this up with blanket statements – it is still not easy to hear.
But she said……
But she said she liked me and I have a certain energy about myself and advised me to always treat wines with decency, Mate remembered the beginnings.
The story didn’t stop at commenting on Kovačević’s wine, however. Mate explained that Dragana saw a great passion and desire in him when she had just come to her parents‘ birthplace, fell in love and decided to stay in Ravni Kotari and asked him in advance if he would have a wine story with her want to tell. His answer was yes. He says: „It was all agreed in literally five minutes, after which everything came naturally on the wheels of enthusiasm and good humor.“
“We named the Degarra winery and described it as a small, dedicated and superior production – Vin de Garage, and as such we wanted to find our place. We have agreed to produce limited quantities and not be able to produce grapes by quantity. People are quite fragile, and I mean not just physically, but also mentally and emotionally. It doesn’t take a person a lot of energy to be drawn to a place they don’t want to go. This is why I named the winery Degarra because I wanted the name to stop the money and increase production to get me where I didn’t want to go. Then the name would also be sullied. Dane and Dragana also agreed not to turn this into a deal, but only to enjoy a passion for life. „
That is why the Degarra winery received its recognizable label with only three circles, which, according to Mate, represent the life cycle – “everything that begins, ends in a circle” or “you reap what you sow”.
“The circles show what we wanted to say to our customers, as we claim that wine is not just a liquid, but a living being that is always on the move,” said Mate.
The circles consist of words: “Degarra, Zadar winery, fine wines, limited editions”, “Controlled geographical origin, Croatian coast, Zadar” and in the innermost circle “Passion, desire, devotion, work, admiration, pleasure, ecstasy. ”
“The winery turned out to be our perfect escape from everyday life, where we seek peace, live with the winery and share the energy we have gained with our wine friends. We just try to live in accordance with our label by using a good wine that makes a good man ”, Mate explained somewhat philosophically.
However, Degarra is not just a philosophy of life, it is serious work, no matter how hard mate tries to avoid wine as a business. In the first year, 8,000 bottles were sold out and they felt like they were at the top of the world, but the next year their conviction was shattered as, despite their disbelief, they had sold all 18,000 bottles. In the third, they sold all 30,000 and wanted to keep that amount for the time being, at least until they completed a new cellar that would merge all three of the locations they used, cementing Degarra production to 50,000 bottles.
“This year we also produced 30,000 bottles of superior wine. We just live with our wine because we don’t know any other way. After the first four harvests we are more determined to keep a small and controlled production that can produce the best results. Wine is an extended personality of the winemaker, in this case from me and Dane. You have to live with the wine, which is impossible when we go into industrial areas! „
Founding the Degarra winery was, as Mate claims, only a matter of time, as his grandfather took him to the vineyard as a child and only needed one “last click”. And that trigger was Dragana, even with a little luck when she returned to her parents‘ region. In addition to the effect of love, Duško Jokić, a winemaker from Lišani Tinjski, played a major role. At that time he founded a winery and needed an oenologist. So Dragana married Dane, became production manager at the Jokić winery and her chance meeting with Mate Pestić turned into another great Zadar wine story.
Grandfather and the vineyard
“We inherited a vineyard from our grandfather, but it has been neglected. We have been too busy living just for the bank account, power, strength, cars, employees and not for ourselves! On the other hand, my father used to say that there was so much light in my eyes the whole time we talked about food and wine, as if I was meant to live this life. My best man, Frane Žuvela, a well-known Hvar caterer who unfortunately died in a car accident a few weeks ago, always said when he visited my place that he was coming to the temple of gastronomy! How I did everything, cook and prepare and entertain guests. Frane was like my second brother. We met in college, clicked, and been through everything together ever since. He was also in the fishing had its own shopping stations and around 200 employees. Once we were in our tavern, ate and drank, and he brought two St. Pierre’s fish weighing 2 kg each. While they discussed whether they should be grilled or cooked, I let them talk and secretly did my own thing. I decided to put it under the baking bell. I encrusted the potatoes and only put the fish on them for ten minutes. While they were still talking, I was preparing everything and they thought I was making side dishes. When they saw what I was bringing to the table, they were amazed. Frane just asked: „Am I worth climbing into your restaurant temple?“ And I replied, „Is it possible that the President of the Hvar City Catering Guild could ask me something like this?“ In any case, Frane made the court part of his offer, which has been copied by other Hvar caterers. On St. Vincent Day, Frane and I were supposed to visit Vlado Krauthaker and Mihalj, followed by a visit to the Kovačević winery. I will describe what happened to him as fate
In his wine range with Pošip, a Plavina rose, Bonterra (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah Coupage), sparkling wine Degarra Primo (from Pošip!) And Degarra Brut Rose (from Plavina!) Is a specialty of Bomary, a flavored coupage from Bonterra – and Maraska wine, recognized by Falkensteiner in Zadar as a strategic product in their range. Bomary is an abbreviation for Bonterra, Maraska and Yoy, supposedly with a J, but „we wanted a wine name that included joy, so we changed the letters and still sounded like Madame Bovary …“
“We really pour all of our energy into wine, which for us is the real joy of life,” concluded Mate.
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