Jo Ahearne’s Croatian wines have a drop of Irish charm
Five years ago Britishborn winemaker Jo Ahearne MW left her job to go and live on a remote island to make her own wine. The island she chose was one of the most beautiful in the Adriatic. Hvar, a one-and-a half-hour ferry ride from the Dalmatian coast, is renowned for stunning scenery of pine forests, olive groves and lavender fields, but it was not the landscape that attracted Ahearne, it was the island’s steep vineyards and treasure trove of grapes.
“Croatia is like a mini-italy with over 100 indigenous grapes – and Hvar is no exception,” she says.
Interestingly, it was not love at first sight. “I first visited Croatia on holiday in 2003 when working as a winemaker in Australia. I thought it was beautiful, but after two days I started drinking beer as the local konoba (taverna) wine served to tourists was a bit dodgy,” she says.
“Fast forward to 2014, whilst working as winemaker in neighbouring Macedonia I discovered Croatia’s potential. I was invited to a wine exhibition in Split, visited vineyards and saw how things had changed with increasing number of vineyards planted.”
Ahearne chose to set her winery on Hvar as she felt it would be easier to get to know one island, rather than a whole country. Hvar is 42 miles long with a high east-west ridge of Mesozoic limestone and dolomite – and a long history of growing vines. The Greeks first brought vines to the island 2,000 years ago and in its heyday there were 3,500 hectares of vineyards; due to emigration, fires and economic crisis there are now only 350.
“My old boss Charlie Melton in Barossa in Australia used to say – get good grapes and don’t muck it up – so I applied his philosophy,” she says.
When Ahearne arrived she knew no-one and admits she found it tough working alone, going for a month without conversation in winter. Despite speaking four
languages, the complexity of Croatian village dialects still eludes her.
Hvar’s geography proved another challenge. “I found the steep vineyards terrifying – all small white rocks that slip and slide – with everything handtended.”
Her other challenges include local bureaucracy, lack of wine logistics on the island, relying on a mobile bottling line – and the cost of running a winery in a remote location.
“Everyone assumes grapes here are cheap,” she says. “Plavac mali costs the same as a good Oregon pinot noir or the best Coonawarra cabernet, bogdanusa is the same as 90-year-old Barossa semillon and posip similar to chardonnay in Tasmania.”
It is the quality and character of Croatian grapes that make it worthwhile. Her favourite grape is darnekusa, a rare Hvar variety with only 1.5 hectares planted which she used for her first wine – a rosé.
Ahearne feels her 25-year winemaking career set her in good stead as she had worked with great names from Andrew Pirie at Pipers Brook to Bernie Hickin at Orlando. But it was blending wines worldwide as Marks & Spencer’s wine buyer that helped her most, as she learnt the balance of wines across many regions.
“I thought of rioja when working with low acid plavac mali, but barbaresco for tight knit tannins and floral notes. I used my work in Burgundy when dealing with posip and my experience with Charlie Melton – the first to take rosé seriously in Australia – and blending in Provence when I envisaged rosina.”
Ahearne describes her best moment as seeing the first wines bottled with her name on – the heron on the label relates to her family’s Irish crest.
She makes four wines: rosina rosé, two whites, a posip and maceration wine Wild Skins and barrique-aged plavac mali South Side, sold at her cellar door – but two have just become available in the UK. Wild Skins 2017 Ahearne Vino In the spirit of Croatia’s “natural wine” history, Jo makes this refreshingly gentle introduction to the style; a blend of kuc, giving spice and quince, bagdanusa, adding citrus kick, and posip giving palate richness. Ahearne feels some local varieties can be neutral, so macerates grapes on skins for up to a month to enhance flavour, with nine months’ lees ageing, lees stirring and minimal sulphur and filtration.
Taste: Deep yellow, pungent rich lemon peel and ginger notes, rich textured complex palate, almost oily, with soft tannins – a beautifully-made orange wine.
£30.60, Fine Wine Co, www. thefinewinecompany.co.uk; Exel Wines, www.exelwines. co.uk
Rosine 2017 Ahearne Vino
Made from rare, STAR spicy, high acid BUY darnekusa, this is a serious structured, sophisticated style which could withstand some ageing – one of the best roses I have tasted.
Taste: Pale pink, herby, earthy, strawberry nose, fresh, vivid, sappy, cherry and raspberry fruits, dry on the finish – a deliciously delicate well-made rose with a strong backbone – very fine. ■
£27, Fine Wine Co, www. thefinewinecompany.co.uk; Exel Wines, www.exelwines. co.uk
Join Rose Murray Brown MW’S Alsace v New Zealand tasting in Edinburgh on Thursday 17 October, £45, www.rosemurraybrown.com