The Wine We Waited Years to Make: Our First Graševina Berry Selection
There is an old legend from the Tokaj hills — just across the border from our own vineyards in Međimurje — that the first noble rot wine was born from fear. Monks delayed the harvest during Ottoman raids, and by the time they returned, the grapes had shrivelled under a strange mould. What should have been ruin turned out to be gold. Centuries later, winemakers still depend on the same accidental miracle: the fungus Botrytis cinerea, settling on ripe skins, slowly drawing out water and concentrating what remains into something no variety can produce on its own.
We have been waiting years for that miracle to happen at our organic family winery in Međimurje, Croatia. Climate conditions simply would not allow it — until the 2025 season finally changed everything.
What Is a Berry Selection — and Why It Took So Long
Graševina Berry Selection
Berry Selection (izborna berba bobica) is a predicate wine category in Croatia, meaning a wine of added value produced under strict conditions. It cannot be planned or forced. It requires noble rot to settle naturally on the grapes, dehydrating them on the vine and concentrating their sugars to levels that normal harvesting could never reach.
For our Graševina (known as Welschriesling in Austria), those conditions had not come together in our vineyard for years. Climate change kept disrupting the delicate balance of humidity and warmth that botrytis needs to develop beneficially rather than destructively. The 2025 vintage finally brought the right autumn — and we did not waste the opportunity.
The result: fifteen times less wine than a standard harvest, and something entirely different from any Graševina we have made before.
What Noble Rot Does to a Grape
Botrytis rewrites the variety entirely. Graševina is normally a fresh, crisp white — our workhorse grape across the rolling hills of northern Croatia. But when noble rot takes hold, that freshness gives way to something deeper: honeycomb, beeswax, candied orange peel, quince paste, a warm trace of dried apricot and saffron.
In the glass, the 2025 Berry Selection pours a clear, pale gold with a bright green glint — luminous and young, with its whole life still ahead of it. Noble rot concentrates sugars, not colour; the amber depth that people associate with dessert wines comes only with years of bottle age.
On the palate, it is intensely sweet and richly textured, with a viscosity that coats the tongue slowly. But what keeps the wine alive — what separates it from being merely sweet — is Graševina’s natural acidity threading through the richness, carrying the finish long after the sip is gone. That tension between sweetness and structure is what great dessert wines are made of.
Sweet dreams with sweet wine
A Rare Wine from a Rare Season
Vino Lovrec is a certified organic family winery in Međimurje, the northernmost wine-growing region of Croatia. We have farmed organically since 2015 — the first certified organic winery in Međimurje — and craft our wines in a 16th century cellar, the oldest preserved wine cellar in Upper Međimurje. Our Graševina Berry Selection 2025 is a sweet white wine at 15.0% alcohol by volume, bottled in 0.375 l format, and produced without synthetic pesticides or fertilisers under certified organic standards.
This wine is about patience — not just ours, but nature’s. It took years of seasons that would not cooperate before one finally did. And it yielded only a fraction of what our vines normally produce. Some things cannot be rushed or replicated.
Serve it at 12 °C — with aged blue cheese, honey cake, crème brûlée, or simply on its own, when the moment feels right.
Good to Know
Q: What does “Berry Selection” mean on a Croatian wine label?
A: Berry Selection (Izborna Berba Bobica) is a predicate category indicating that grapes were individually selected after being affected by noble rot (Botrytis cinerea), concentrating their sugars naturally in the grapes. It is one of the highest quality designations for sweet wines in Croatia.
Q: How long can this wine age?
A: Noble rot wines with good acidity can develop beautifully over 10–20 years. The pale gold colour will deepen to amber over time as the wine matures in the bottle.
Q: Can I visit the winery and taste this wine?
A: We welcome guests by appointment from May 20 to November 15, in Croatian, English, French, or German. Email us at info@vino-lovrec.hr to book your visit. Our wines are also available at Vinoteka Vino Lovrec in Varaždin and online at products.