Product: Azrri Boškarin Salami in Red Wine
Country: Croatia
Region: Istra
Producer: AZRRI
Closure:
Alcohol:

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This hand-tied salami cuts into firm, finely grained slices of a deep, dark red, the colour of the wine it was soaked in.

It is made from the boškarin, the indigenous Istrian ox that came close to extinction and now survives thanks to a small group of breeders and AZRRI, the Istrian rural development agency in Pazin. The meat is steeped in strong Croatian red wine, which softens it, and then left to mature slowly.

The wine adds notes of dark fruit and spice that blend with the natural sweetness of the meat. It is lean and earthy, and very clean on the palate.

Serve it thinly sliced with mature cheese and marinated olives, and pour a Teran, Plavac Mali or Refošk alongside.

AZRRI (Agencija za ruralni razvoj Istre) is the rural development agency of Istria County, based in Pazin and founded by the county in 2003. Together with the Istrian cattle breeders' association it has led the protection of the boškarin, the grey, long-horned Istrian ox, whose numbers fell to about 100 animals in the 1990s and have since recovered to more than 2,000. The agency also works with Istrian goats, sheep and donkeys, and makes small series of gourmet boškarin salami from meat matured in a controlled environment.