Product: Clai Ottocento Crni
Country: Croatia
Region: Istra
Producer: Clai
Closure: Wine Cork
Alcohol: 14%

Manufacture dates on images and products are representative only. All bottles sold at Witrina are updated from the latest safra.

Ottocento Crni is Giorgio Clai's red: Refošk and Merlot from vines close to the cellar in Krasica, fermented separately on their skins in open vats without added yeasts, then aged two years in large Slavonian, Austrian and French oak and bottled without fine filtration.

Giorgio and Vesna Clai moved from Trieste to Krasica, south of Buje in northern Istria, about twenty years ago and built a small estate on the white soil there: ten hectares of vines and five of olives at 200 metres, cooled by salty breezes from the Adriatic. They helped bring the skin-contact style to Istria, and Ottocento is their best known label.

Expect blackberry and dark cherry over a savoury layer of tobacco and herbs, with fine oak spice and juicy, sweet plum fruit. The tannins are integrated, the texture velvety, the finish mineral. Falstaff has rated vintages of this wine at 93 points.

Open it an hour ahead and serve with roast beef, game or pasta with a meat sauce. It has the structure to age.

Giorgio and Vesna Clai moved from Trieste to Krasica, south of Buje in northern Istria, about twenty years ago and built a small estate on the white soil there: ten hectares of vines and five of olives at 200 metres, ten kilometres from the sea. They ferment on the skins with wild yeasts, add nothing, age in wood of various sizes and bottle without fine filtration, and are credited with bringing the skin-contact style to Istria.