Jo Ahearne is an academically trained winemaker and a Master of Wine. She is currently producing Croatian wine under her namesake winery on the island of Hvar in South Dalmatia. In this interview, she sheds some light on the Croatian wine industry and what it’s like to make wine in Croatia.

You can find Jo Ahearne wines at wineandmore.com

JO AHEARNE, AN EDUCATED GUEST

• Jo, thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Let’s start off by getting to know you, as a wine lover, a little better. Do you have an epiphany wine?

Wine wasn’t a huge part of my life growing up. We [my family] did have wine occasionally, but it was only as I got a bit older, also when wine became more accessible in the UK with supermarkets selling it, that it was more of a thing. I suppose my ‘come to Jesus’ moment was during a holiday in France with my parents, sister, aunt, uncle, and my cousins. My dad and uncle decided to treat themselves to a half-bottle of Pommard, but since they were surrounded by seven women who were having none of that ‘not sharing’ lark, we all ended up with a sip each!

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“It [Plavac Mali] is a grape that you can get that Nebbiolo-esque perfume and refined tannin backbone, but make it another way and it will have the burly Amarone or Barossa Valley richness.”

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• A Pommard sounds like a fine way to start the journey. How has your preference in wine evolved over time?

I think in wine, like in many areas in life, there can sometimes be an obsession with the ‘next new thing’, and we can forget what made us love something in the first place. But I do think your palate is your palate. I’m a bit of an acid freak with white wines, and I don’t think that has changed. But with red, I was more of a Bordeaux girl to start, and that has definitely changed.

I remember the first ‘serious’ bottle of Australian wine I bought when I started working at Oddbins: it was a Charles Melton’s Shiraz. It cost £8; but considering I was earning £2.50 an hour, it was a huge purchase for me. The ripeness of the fruit and the seductive tannins were a revelation for me. The weird thing was that years later, Charlie gave me my first vintage job, which started me on the path to becoming a winemaker. 10 years in Australia made my palate more New Worldy.

Coming back to Europe, I worked a lot in Italy and enjoyed bolder southern reds but really fell in love with Piedmont and Nebbiolo; I started to ignore those lovely bold Australian flavors. This was what made me want to make Plavac Mali. It is a grape that you can get that Nebbiolo-esque perfume and refined tannin backbone, but make it another way and it will have the burly Amarone or Barossa Valley richness. So I’ve started to embrace the richness once more.

• What makes Hvar so special?

Ah! I could go on forever. When I decided that I’d make my own wine in Croatia, I looked at what was considered the ‘grand cru’ sites, and the south side of Hvar was one of them. In a country that is ridiculously beautiful, Hvar is even more beautiful. When I travel to another region, I think about how lovely it is, and then I come back ‘home’ and realize that Hvar is on another level.

A view of Hvar, Croatia. © August Dominus, CC BY-SA 4.0

• We agree. Hvar is a stunning-looking place with great food, great wine, and fantastic people. What are the challenges of being a foreigner making wine in Croatia?

I think they are the same challenges that you would have anywhere else. As a Londoner, I am always going to be an outsider making wine in Croatia. The Croatian language is hard, but so many people speak great English here. The main challenge is probably just finding out who sells what, like the capsules, bottles, and corks. I still can’t find someone who is able to print the cartons I want for my wine. I know it sounds daft, but I can’t find a likable bottle that is the same for the standard, magnum, and jeroboam formats. Another challenge is finding growers who understand yield and quality. I tend to let the vineyards do the quality control for me; good sites can control the excess vegetation and excess yield naturally.

• Tell us about the Dalmatian grape varieties, especially the ones you work with.

I started with Plavac Mali, which is related to Zinfandel (known in Croatia as Crljenak Kaštelanski and Tribidrag) and has that same part-raisin flavor profile. This comes not from a desire for extended ‘hang time’ but because it ripens unevenly. So a proportion of the fruit has to be raisined for the rest of the berries to have a chance at ripening. Vineyard selection is paramount because there are some places, even on the south side of Hvar, where the tannins never get ripe and the acidity is too low and pH too high. However, if you get it right, Plavac Mali can produce such fine tannins that imbue even the biggest wine with elegance.

Then I found the Darnekuša for my rosé, which is the opposite of Plavac Mali. It never ripens to more than about 11.5% potential alcohol and has very little color. But it has concentration, structure, and fantastic acidity.

I found some great Pošip this vintage. I think it’s akin to Pinot Bianco with a twist of Viognier. And then I work with Bogdanuša and Kuć as well, which can be quite neutral.

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“Wine production isn’t cheap here, so the prices of Croatian wine come as a surprise to a lot of people. When I tell my friends in Spain how much Plavac Mali and Darnekuša cost, they get a heart attack.”

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A vineyard on the island of Hvar.

• We’re big fans of both your Plavac Mali and Darnekuša. Please share with us more about your wines.

I choose the Plavac Mali based on vineyards and scientific analyses. The fruit has to have concentration and freshness to start. Then if the tannins are ripe and the pH is low enough, I will buy the fruit. I have a cutoff point of pH 3.7 in the vineyard, and many of the parcels I buy have much lower pH than that. I’ve seen fruit that has another month till it’s ripe and already at pH 3.8. Making wine from grapes with a pH over four is not fun.

For Pošip, I pick at three different sugar levels to get the flavors of lime and lemon, then peach and melon, and finally tropical guava and pineapple.

For Bogdanuša and Kuć, I ferment them on skins to get more flavors from these neutral varieties and also some refreshing phenolics. It’s mostly about texture for me; so for the whites, I do a lot of bâttonage. I spend hours removing stalks and seeds from the red wines to get rid of green tannins. Everything is fermented in open-tops. Pushing the cap down is done by hand for gentle extraction and to make sure the wine is getting enough oxygen.

Jo Ahearne Rosina, a rosé made from Croatia’s indigenous variety called Darnekuša.

• Are there any Croatian wines that have really caught your eye?

The wine that inspired me to make my own Plavac Mali was Miloš Stagnum, with its perfume and refined tannic tension. The Tomić Caplar is a perfect combination of international and indigenous varieties. I adore La Sin, the Lasina from Bibich, which is known as the ‘Dalmatian Pinot Noir’ because of its amazing silky texture. Vina Cattunar from Istria is doing some interesting things with soil types; its Malvazija, which I tasted at the Vinart Grand Tasting in Zagreb, had this amazing white pepper spice and fabulous texture. There are some great Sauvignon Blancs coming out of Slavonia. But to be honest, I need to spend a few months traveling around and visiting more wineries.

• What are the cultural obstacles you face in Dalmatia?

No more than in any other places where you are an outsider. The Dalmatians are famous for being quite stubborn, but so can I!

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“The notion that Eastern Europe equals cheap wine is a hard one to work against.”

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• Is Croatian wine ready for the international stage? What are the obstacles that the Croatian wine industry might face moving forward?

There is a thirst – excuse the pun – for exploring different regions and grape varieties, and that’s more widespread than just among us wine geeks. Five years ago, people were less adventurous. This plays nicely into the hands of the Croatian wine industry with its wealth of indigenous varieties.

Wine production isn’t cheap here, so the prices of Croatian wine come as a surprise to a lot of people. When I tell my friends in Spain how much Plavac Mali and Darnekuša cost, they get a heart attack. The notion that Eastern Europe equals cheap wine is a hard one to work against. There are no large vineyard holdings to make ‘entry point’ wine; with the demise of the co-operative system, there isn’t the focus on that end of the market as you’d find in France, Spain, and Italy.

For me, one of the biggest obstacles is that the majority of tourists who visit Croatia sample wine in konobas. The quality of the wine in those places is varied, to say the least. It is also totally unregulated. When I first visited Croatia in 2003, I stopped drinking wine after the second day.

I now know that the wine I was drinking in the local restaurants was made from the owner’s or family’s grapes and in the garage. Economically, I understand why they would encourage you to drink their ‘homemade’ wine. I thought the use of that word was a quaint translation, but it’s quite literal. If you are selling this wine for 80 Kuna (~USD 11.50) a liter with no costs accumulated from bottling, label, cork, or carton, that is the equivalent to an ex-cellar price for some Premier Cru Chablis or even Brunello.

Often, this wine is kept in a hot place, and it gets oxidized, volatile, mousey, and sometimes all three at once! Sometimes it’s nice, but other times, the tourists think this is what Croatian wine is all about. And they will go back home and never ask their local wine shops for Croatian wine because, based on their experiences, Croatian wine is okay at best.

We need to work on getting the tourists to take home the message that Croatian wine is great, and also spend time in export markets pouring wines and talking to potential customers. The lack of a ‘Wines of Croatia’ association holds the country back. For example, each year at Prowein, there is a large stand full of Macedonian wine. The wineries do not pay the huge cost of that stand on their own, as they have government support. There is a stand for Slovenia, Greece, Moldova, Bulgaria, but Croatia is absent and therefore absent from the minds of the international buyers who are searching for new things.

Thank you so much for your insights, Jo. We look forward to enjoying more Ahearne Vino!

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You May Also Enjoy

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• Nenad Trifunović: Connecting Taste with Heart
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Varietal wines made from the native grapes of Hvar island, Croatia:

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Sarah Abbott is a Master of Wine who comes from a food-loving family. After working in the IT software industry for several years, she decided to change her career trajectory and immerse in wine in 1996. Her first foray into wine was as a sales and marketing representative at an importing company of domaine-bottled Burgundy. She describes the pay as meager but she “drank like a stockbroker”.

After working with many inspiring people in the wine world and encouraged by them to further her expertise, Sarah enrolled in the Masters of Wine program. In 2008, she earned the academic title MW and off she went with following her heart and working her tail off. She founded Swirl, a wine education and events company that works with customers of different levels — from end-consumers, to corporate clients, importers, and producers. Regardless the setup, her goals are to empower consumers, celebrate the stories of wine, and harness the power of wine to unite people.

Conversation with Sarah Abbott, Master of Wine
& Champion for Lesser-known Wine Regions

• What is the difference between a Master Sommelier (MS) and a Master of Wine (MW)? 

They are two different exams run and awarded by two different organisations. Both require the highest levels of wine knowledge and insight, but they have different emphases and the style of exam is different too. Master Sommeliers have demonstrated their ability and excellence with wine in an on-trade environment. That means verbally showing their knowledge, and displaying physical skill and dexterity when it comes to actually serving wine. The MW exam is all written, there’s no spoken element, and I suppose it’s more theoretical. The syllabus for MW is broader. We don’t go into the depth of wine service that MS does.

• What’s the most valuable lesson you have learned as a Master of Wine?

Cultivate cheerful humility and relentless curiosity. Get organised. Allow yourself to be helped. Be ready to help others. Being a Master of Wine isn’t about proving how great you are. Rather, it is about surrendering yourself to understanding a natural and cultural way in which the world is expressed. During the course of my study, I’ve received first-hand experience of depending on those who came before me, the generosity of producers, and my fellow classmates.

• What does wine mean to you?

Wine is an ambassador for civilisation. It is a symbol of hope, stability, and cultural refinement. More importantly, it represents hospitality and togetherness. It’s a way of understanding our beautiful world. Wine is a way of connecting with friends, soon-to-be friends, and humanity. And it’s really great fun to drink.

• That’s a beautiful way to put it. It’s one of the many reasons why we always enjoy talking to you: we can feel the romance and tenderness in your words. But how do you keep your love for wine from becoming too technical and work related? Is it challenging to have what’s predominantly a hobby and passion to most people as your everyday work?

No, I’m inherently frivolous so keeping fun in my work is really easy for me. I did have ‘if a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing well’ drummed into me as a kid. I’m very lucky to be working with something I love and find so endlessly interesting.

• You’re known to champion lesser-known wine regions. When we traveled through Georgia and Turkey, many winemakers spoke fondly of you. So let’s talk about Turkish wine. Can you tell us a few of your favourite Turkish grape varieties and how they perform next to international, well-known grapes?

Öküzgözü is great fun. It is fleshy, sumptuous, and aromatic. It reminds me a bit of Syrah, but with the aromatics and lift of Sangiovese. Bogazkere is a moody but potentially great variety. I guess you could compare it to Tannat or Nebbiolo because of its tannic structure. But the fruit is darker and less floral. Kalecik Karası is a gorgeously alluring red wine grape. Some people compare it to Pinot Noir, but if so it’s like Pinot Noir on holiday –  very relaxed and not at all neurotic. Narince is like what Pinot Grigio would be if it was more interesting – delicate and sneakily aromatic. Emir is steely – a bit like Manseng but with more aromatics. Sultaniye is really good fun and very drinkable – reminds me of good Pinot Blanc, which I think is a variety much underestimated for uncomplicated pleasure.

• Yes, we are fans of those grapes that you mentioned. There are many distinguished Turkish wine grapes that show a lot of potential. What would you like wine lovers to think or feel when they drink Turkish wine?

Be open, be bold, be hopeful.

• Let’s move on to Georgian wine and specifically, Georgian wine made in the qvevri. What do wine lovers need to know and how can they enjoy it?

Qvevri is one of the oldest winemaking methods in the world, but in Georgia it is an unbroken tradition that exists in both traditional and modern forms. Qvevri are buried clay vessels in which freshly harvested grape bunches are placed and then fermented. Qvevri solve a lot of winemaking problems, so are popular among producers who favour a ‘less is more’ approach when it comes to intervention and additions.

Grapes getting fermented in a buried qvevri at the Pheasant’s Tears winery in Georgia.

• What is the next stage for you? What ambition do you have for your own development and for these lesser-known wine regions that you work with? 

I want to continue to help lesser known and underestimated wines secure their future and find their market. I know that sometimes ‘selling’ is seen as something that is less poetic than the creation of the wines or the tradition of these unique varieties and places. But nothing happens until something is sold. We need to match these quirky, beautiful wines with people who love them and are delighted to buy them. That’s how we keep this sort of wine biodiversity, and link to the past, and give to the future. And create memories. Life is short, and we’re here to enjoy it.

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Trendsetter: Oliver Gareis From Amadeus Winery, Turkey

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