Every first weekend in October, the city of Kastav is flooded with guests. The Bela nedeja (White Sunday) tradition is held in honour of young wine and early fall, and has been known since 1400 when it was mentioned in the Code of the City. Today, this is not only a wine fair but also a promotion of old crafts as well as the new Chinese goods that flood the Kastav streets. However, the flavours and aromas of the Kvarner region prevail, with numerous guests from other parts of Croatia.
Thus, as you move from the roundabout at the entrance to the old town to the Lodge in front of the city walls, cheese makers from all parts of Croatia, sausage makers and producers of meat products, tempting booths with fritters and carpentry can be found. And then the centre of attention of this event comes to light, which is a newly prepared young Belica, the local wine pride of Kastav. We couldn’t miss the opportunity to spend this beautiful autumn day in Kastav, and we brought also our friend from Mongolia!
This is also a great opportunity to visit the Small Local Museum and the Osojnak boiler room, one of the most famous workshops of Kastav boiler Milko Osojnak where boiler copper products were used for household purposes. At the same time, one can visit the Viko’s barrel, where an exhibition of tools for making basins and other wooden dishes is set up. Often there are local wine and brandy tastings, and the best thing to do in the early fall is to sit in the backyard of the barrel and taste the Belica.
As a young wine, which is still a must in this time of quiet fermentation, the Belica is refreshing with extremely fruity aromas, mostly apple. It is a blend of autochthonous varieties of verdić, mejski and divjak, and sometimes a little Malvasia is added. Thanks to the Belica Association, this tradition has been saved, and even today there is even a top quality Kastav belica!
In addition to Belica, we also tasted some other wines from the region. On the stand of Krk wines we hung out with Ivica Dobrinčić, a great winemaker from Vrbnik on the island of Krk who fascinates with his Sansigot and Trojišćina, with the inevitable Žlahtina. New plans for his Šipun winery show that Dobrinčić is understood to be an extremely interesting winemaker.
We also met our acquaintances from Moslavina. Collectively, they presented winemakers with various Škrlet wines, among which were the labels of our dear friend Ivica Florijanović - Floki. All winemakers announce a great season, because the harvest went well, the quality is perfect, only the quantities are small. It will be exciting to try this year's wine!