Awards coming from all around the world - Wines from Zvonko Bogdan Winery in high demand

Zlatko Zivanic

This year eKapija web portal again presents the Aurea Award for the best investment in 2012 in late March. While waiting to see who the new winners will be, we have paid a visit to the companies whose projects were shortlisted for last year`s awards to check how far they have gone with the development of their businesses.

The first award they won last year was the Aurea Award, which they received for the complete production system at their winery at Palic. After that, the company won a number of awards for the quality of wines in Serbia and abroad as well as awards for their contribution to the tourism sector, which all led to the demand for wines from Zvonko Bogdan Winery exceeding this year`s capacity of the company.

Wishing to get more familiar with the development of this winery, we went to the Wine Fair in Belgrade to talk with Zvonko Bogdan Winery Director Zlatko Zivanic.

The winery`s Cuvee No.1, which won an award for the best wine from Serbia at this year`s Big Blind Tasting, and Merlot, of which there are only few hundred bottles left for special occasions, attracted the most attention of Wine Fair visitors.

Zlatko Zivanic

- Last year was extremely successful. The Serbian Chamber of Commerce and the Tourism Organization of Serbia presented us with an award for the best winery in 2012. Our wines also won awards in Vienna, London, Tokyo, San Francisco. These medals are important as they motivate us to constantly enhance the quality of our wines. Of course, we also find all awards for our winery and our contribution to the tourism sector in Serbia important.

This winery has remained faithful to the same assortment of top-quality wines that has not changed for more than 150 years and includes Sauvignon blanc, Pinot blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Frankovka.

- A total of 72,000 bottles were marketed in 2012, with restaurants being our top buyers.

Guests of 126 restaurants in Belgrade can enjoy the wines from Palic, and they are also available to Zvonko Bogdan fans in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Austria and Denmark.

In order to bring the Zvonko Bogdan brand closer to consumers, they have also opened wine stores in Subotica and at Mount Kopaonik.

Zlatko Zivanic

As Zivanic said, their aim is to boost sales in the region and improve the tourist offer of Palic. In June 2012 they opened a 70 sqm wine tasting room within the barrique cellar of Zvonko Bogdan Winery, which is separated from the cellar with a glass wall.

- Tourist visits must be announced in advance. We offer guests to tour our vineyards, winery and the barrique cellar and taste our wine. They can also visit the Zvonko Bogdan farm, which is located on the very bank of Lake Ludos and can host seminars and expert lectures for up to 60 persons.

As he said, with the construction of the Museum of Zvonko Bogdan, which is in the pipeline, the tourist offer of Palic will definitely be improved.

The winery is surrounded by vineyards spanning 17 hectares, while additional 9 hectares are situated on the bank of the neighboring Lake Ludos. They have planted vines on another 17 hectares in the meantime and plan to add the last 13 hectares this spring, thus increasing the total area covered by vineyards to 56 hectares.

M.K.