Donkeys, Olive Oil, and Smrikve Return – Day Two in Istria

When we were heading to the Porer Lighthouse to spend the night, Goran, our Visit Istria guide had told us that the island had been rumored to be haunted. I don’t put much thought into those things, but there was a bit of doubt in logic by morning.

At 12:45 am, all six of us in the lighthouse woke with a startle from the loud banging of doors and windows. At first I thought it was the wind, but then realized it was coming from two different directions.

A few minutes after it stopped, an alarm started sounding. It quieted down for a bit, than the sequence started again about an hour later.

The lighthouse keeper had no logical explanation except wind and, quite frankly, I was too tired from two nights of not sleeping to even care. 

Lynn was ready quicky and I tried to get a little work done on my photos before we left.

While I have to admit that staying in a lighthouse on a private island was intriguing, the actual place – with no air conditioning and these creepy noises – was not an experience I wanted to repeat. 

I would get my wish, but it certainly wasn’t in the original plan.

Goran had made sure we were stocked with food, water, and beer on the island. I had a banana, a piece of cinnamon bread and some instant cappuccino for breakfast. Before I knew it the boat was waiting outside to take us to the mainland.

The wind had picked up and the ride was a bit rocky, but we safely arrived at the dock. I hadn’t noticed how beautiful the Adriatic looked here at Cape Kamenjak and took a few minutes to admire it before we got into the van for our ride to Vodnjan.

After learning about the small igloo like houses called kažuni the workers constructed in this area, we headed to this quaint town – by donkey. It was quite an experience bouncing up and down the cobblestone streets and through the piazza inside a cart being pulled by two donkeys.

All the men gathered at the piazza were smiling and laughing at us and we just waved and laughed along with them!

When we got out of the donkey carriage we went in to check out a very interesting museum of the region, Istrian de Dignan EcoMuseum. The museum contains a lot of artifacts from the area, as well as basic equipment to make wine and olive oil.

Our next stop was to find out even more about olive oil at Brist, a top Croatian producer of extra virgin olive oil. After seeing the orchards with Paul O’Grady, who works the company along with his family, we went to the store and tasted their oils – Delicato, Sta. Margherita, Intenso, and Oleum. I was surprised how rich they were in comparison to the Italian ones I was used to. I liked the Sta. Margherito best for its more subtle flavors.

We headed back to Pula, where Paul joined us (along with his olive oils) for lunch at Konoba Feral. We started with some satisfying sparkling wine from Istria and fresh bread, as we had worked up quite an appetite.

The first course was tasty prosciutto and cheese. I really loved the cheese from this area with all the heartiness of a parmesan, but softer.

Next up was a wonderful homemade pasta with spinach in a light sauce, which I added some of the Sta. Margherita Olive Oil to per Paul’s suggestion and it made it even better.

Finally, we were treated to a plate of panna cotta and a heavier, delicious cake, all topped with chocolate sauce.

At the same time, my friend Miodrag Bozovic came to pick Lynn and me up to visit Smrikve.

It brought back many lovely memories to visit his home, see his parents again and meet his beautiful fiancé. It had been nine years since they had welcomed me into their home for a week.

I continued the road down memory lane as we walked through the house, the grounds and the tennis courts, but I also got to see the new addition to the property.

The Smrikve Lounge is an amazing house that is available on the property for rent (I’m already trying to figure out when I can return). To make it even more special, it’s surrounded by lavender bushes, olive trees, and vineyards!

Our visit was too short as Mio brought us to meet up with the rest of the Share Istria group at Bi Village in Fazana, a suburb of Pula. 

Just before we reached the restaurant where they were waiting, the rain started to come down.

It was quite a storm, with thunder and lightning, and we soon realized we weren’t going to make it back to the Porer Lighthouse for the night. We would instead stay at the Bi Village and see what happened with the weather the next day.

After stopping at a store to pick up essentials – all our things were on the island – we settled in. Lynn and I had a nice two bedroom cabin. It had air conditioning and was only about two blocks from the sea.

We were a bit hungry so we walked down to the restaurant and enjoyed some Istrian pizza. It was as delicious as I remembered it to be. We thought about checking out the nightlife (the music was playing behind us), but we were pretty exhausted so we went to sleep in our air conditioned cabin and with the scent of lavendar still in my mind.

Don’t forget to share and like my stories on Istria. There’s a lot more to come and I’m still competing for the Share Istria Grand Prize. Look for #ShareIstriaUSA1 on social media. 

Day One Wine Exploration in Roussillon

The weather was not cooperating the way we wished, with clouds and rain most of the day. It didn’t put a damper on my day as I had waited a long time to get to this area and was excited to be in the South of France.

Eric Aracil, Export Manager, Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Roussillon, picked me up for a full day of wine tasting in the Roussillon region. He apologized for the weather and explained how unusual it was since this area actually gets 320 sunny days per year.

I listened to him talk with pride as I enjoyed the beautiful landscape changing in front of the mountains. There were areas of green, but also many spots where it looked like the vines were growing right out of black! These are just a few of the things that make Roussillon unique from other French wine areas.

Our first stop was at Domaine Piquemal, a family-owned winery that was now in the hands of the fifth generation, Marie Pierre Piquemal. She greeted us in the brand new building that now houses their tasting room and winery.

Marie Pierre explained how all the elements in her land, including black soil, clay, olive trees and wild herbs, influence the wines produced by Domaine Piquemal. It was here I had my first taste of Muscat Sec, or dry moscato. It is very popular in Roussillon for its tropical and fresh flavors.

My favorite wine at Domaine Piquemal, though, was the 2010 Les Terres Grilleés, a combination of syrah, grenache and carignan that exemplifies the herb influence in the vineyards.  

Next was Maison Cazes, the largest vineyard in France to practice organic and biodynamic farming.

Lional Lavail, owner and general manager at Cazes, met with us and showed us the solar panels used in this area, which is known to be windy and sunny most of the year. Among the unusual techniques they use to avoid chemicals is a supply of bats to kill spiders and encourage the insects that will help with pollination.

Maison Cazes also has plans to lead the area in another respect – wine tourism. Lional Lavail believes that more should know that the best vineyards to visit are right in Roussillon. He’s already working on building accommodations at the winery to encourage more to visit.

We tasted the wines of Cazes wines during a delicious lunch in their restaurant, which has fresh food brought in everyday from local producers. A 2012 Le Canon du Maréchal. This blend of two types of muscat and viognier together made everything I enjoy in wine – a combination of tropical and citrus that’s fresh, light and just slightly sweet from the fruit.

I had a wonderful quinoa cake and some bread out of the oven in this rustic setting while we tasted some spicy red blends and finished with a most unusual 1999 Rivesaltes Ambré. This barrel-aged Grenache was orange in color and a very good combination of sweet and woody, though it was still hard to pull me away from the Apple-Caramel dessert!

Before I could say no more, Lional pulled out a 1978 White Grenache, which had most incredible notes of apricot, dates, ginger and cherries. It was sad to leave Maison Cazes (and its wines), but we had more places to go and bottles to taste.

Cases de Pene is actually a cooperative of 60 growers from the town with the same name. One winemaker works here to blend and then store the wine in large concrete tanks in the middle of this quaint town. The wines are then sold and exported under the Chateau de Penya name.

Chateau du Penya also produces a fantastic Muscat de Noel, a limited edition Christmas muscato made by many of the wineries in Roussillon that’s worth pre-ordering.

It was time to climb the mountain a bit for the coldest vineyards of Mas Amiel. François Trouquet took us around and showed us some of the unusual winemaking techniques here, including the largest wooden barrels I’ve seen and the smallest containers – which are kept outside.

We did a lot of tasting at Mas Amiel of quite a selection of grenache. My excitement went from one end of the spectrum to the other.  I loved the 2009 Vintage Blanc, a grey grenache with tropical minerality (including strong pineapple notes), and a creamy, long lasting finish. I also relished the 2010 Vintage, a black grenache full of chocolate and back raspberry.

After a short break at the hotel, I had dinner with Gilles Jaubert of Château Planères at Le Café Vienne à Perpignan. Like many of the winery owners of Roussillon, he is fifth generation. We sipped a light 2011 Prestige, a mix of malvasia, vermentino, and white grenache and he told me how his family helped bring new varieties to the region. He also was proud of the fact that everything in his vineyard is done by hand.

My salad was good, but the cheese filled bilini and mushroom, potato, yam dish was just what I needed with the La Romania, an oaked malvasia/vermentino, which stood strong on its own. We ended the meal with a chocolate molten cake and Vin Doux Naturel AOC Rivesaltes Garnet, a black grenache that tasted of plums, black currant and a little bit of green pepper to finish my day with spice.