Being across the adriatic from Italy, it is only natural that Croatia shares their love of two Mediterranean staples: fresh olive oil and quality wine. Grapes and olives are prime produce for Croatia’s arid climate, and some of the easiest things for farmers to grow. When ordering at a restaurant, it is almost expected that your table orders a minimum of one liter each of the house red and white wines. Sometimes the restaurant takes such pride in their Croatian wine, they will offer you a liter on the house, as my group had experienced on multiple occasions.
During the our time on the boat, we had one day that was very sailing intensive. Typically we would set sail at 6 a.m. and arrive at our new port by early afternoon, but on this particular day we were sailing until late afternoon. To fill up the extra time spent on the boat, the crew prepared an olive oil and wine tasting.
Our tour guide, Dio, was especially excited about the wine tasting, and took extra time to review proper wine tasting techniques with us. Swirl, sniff, sip, and swish are all steps he wanted to make sure we completed when tasting the red and white wines offered to us. I’ll admit, I tried to complete these steps but I tended to falter when it came to the swishing; the wines were too dry for my liking and the last thing I wanted to do was coat my entire mouth with the flavor of the wine, so I skipped that part.
The olive oil I was able to get behind more. They offered 3 different types of oil, a mild, robust, and garlic infused, served with a variety of bread and cheeses. For some reason I hadn’t realized there were different types of olive oil regarding intensity, but I discovered that I am a mild olive oil type of girl. Also, you’re apparently supposed to suck the olive oil from the bread to get the flavor, similar to how you’re supposed to swish wine to coat your mouth with the flavor.
Overall, I found the olive oil and wine tasting to be a very nice experience, and a valuable way to get closer to the croatian culture and the flavors/cuisine that’s close to them. Similar to Italy and Greece, Croatia has a dry, arid climate that makes it difficult to grow a lot of produce, but grape and olive vines are able to survive and leave their mark in Croatia.