Announcing Educational „Food and Wine Stories of Croatia“ Series

The exclusive series to be rolled out across the USA throughout 2023

New York, NY, and Greater Boston, MA, March 7, 2023 – The Croatian National Tourist Board, representing the Croatian tourism offer in North America, and the Croatian Premium Wine Imports, Inc., a distributor, wine ambassador and online retailer in USA, announce today a strategic series of educational events presenting the best of Croatia's gourmet offerings, including authentic food and indigenous wine from all Croatian regions -- Istria, Uplands, Slavonia, and Dalmatia.

The first in this series of educational meetings for the media and trade professionals just took place in Manhattan at the Villa Berulia restaurant where Marko Fakin, owner and winemaker of Fakin Wines from Istria presented Croatian winemaking, wine regions and introduced his wines, Malvasia and Teran. As the first presentation in the Food and Wine Stories of Croatia whose goal is to present Croatia as a destination with authentic food and indigenous wine varieties, this Series is designed to evoke the destination and attract American guests who highly appreciate the quality of food and drinks. The response of journalists and educators about wine destinations was excellent, as there were more than 20 representatives of the profession and media from New York who enjoyed Fakin wines.

The next Food and Wine Stories of Croatia educational tasting exclusive to media and trade will take place in Boston on March 22, 2023 at the Commonwealth Wine School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, you can register at: https://us5.forward-to-friend.com/forward/show?u=6df056a4a0826e589be170633&id=254feb9668

Presenting Croatian wine stories will be the team from the Croatian Premium Wine and Dr. Matthew Horkey, wine judge, YouTube wine educator, and co-author of the book Cracking Croatian Wines, for an overview of the inspiring things happening within Croatian wine industry. 

The future events will be announced to closer to the date.

Croatian Wine Category Creation

"To create a category of Croatian wines in shops and restaurants in this large and prestigious market, we Croatians need to join efforts to represent the country's success in producing world-class wine, so to do this successfully this should embrace all organizations, and people from the Croatian public and private sector, including us as importers, winemakers themselves and all wine and tourism institutions,“ said Mirena Bagur, co-founder of Croatian Premium Wine Imports, Inc., a company that distributes, educates and retails online indigenous Croatian wines in the USA.  „In collaboration with the Croatian Chamber of Economy, Vina Croatia, and regional tourism and wine associations, in this case Tourist Board Istria and Vinistra, we combined efforts with the CNTB North American office and strategically educated the New York market about Croatian indigenous varieties. This first meeting introduced different expressions of high-quality Malvasia and Teran, and we are thankful to the Fakin Winery for participating and look forward to many more events of this type across the country."

About Fakin Wines, Motovun, Istria

The Fakin winery nurtures the typical Istrian grape varieties Malvasia Istriana, Teran and Yellow Muscat, and currently has nine active wine labels.  The culture of producing top quality wines is the result of specific Motovun soil, a favorable climate with lots of sun and lots of wind, along with a great knowledge of indigenous grapes, but also experience, dedication and long-standing family traditions that ensures the high-quality of carefully cultivated varieties. As the only Croatian winery that won gold medals at Decanter for six years in a row, Fakin Wines was a great choice for the first in this series of educational events. Wine experts, journalists and sommeliers had the opportunity to meet the Fakin family, taste wines which were carefully paired with Croatia-inspired dishes. Marko Fakin also visited and presented wines at a number of places, such as the Istria Sports Club and Croatian Radio in Astoria, and Vinoteka 46 Tavern, in Huntington, and also with a representative from WINESA, a distributor in New York, visited number of restaurants and stores.  

About Croatian National Tourist Board (CNTB)

The Croatian National Tourist Board is a national tourist organization founded with the aim of creating and promoting the identity and reputation of Croatian tourism at home and abroad. Croatia has been many times recognized as the hidden gem of Europe, due to its abundant World Heritage and great stories, colors, sounds, and flavors, both on mainland and on its more than thousand islands. Besides HQ in Zagreb, the representative office for North America is based in New York. Discover your story at croatia.hr        

About Croatian Premium Wine Imports, Inc. (CPWI)

Based in metro Boston, Massachusetts, CPWI imports, distributes and educates about indigenous Croatian wines, with online retail shop that ships wines to most continental US states. Starting with wines from the Dubrovnik county, the company's portfolio now includes more than 80 wine labels from 30 wineries and all wine regions, including varietals such as Graševina, Malvasia Istriana, Plavac Mali, Tribidrag/Zinfandel, Teran, Babić and Pošip. For more information or to order online, visit, www.CroatianPremiumWine.com/wine, contact us at info@croatianpremiumwine.com and follow us on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Contacts: 

B2B Travel: Croatian National Tourist Board, New York: leila.kresic.us@croatia.hr, 212 279 8672

Wine: Croatian Premium Wine Imports:  mirena.bagur@CroatianPremiumWine.com, 617-987-4232x2