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With aviator sunglasses,a customised4WD and a stash of Cuban cigars in his tasting room. Bru no Trapan ha. recenilybeer 'rock star ofCroatian dubbed the winemaking'. Bmno's cudosity ledhim a party animal-turned-horticulture strrdent - to build a DIY winery in his garagealter inheriting a vineyard from his grandfathel A fewyears and a cabinet full ofawards later, Bruno is amongthemost acclaimed producers in his native Istria- atooth-shaped peninsula at the western colner ofCroatia "This isn't marketinâ&#x201A;Ź bullshit," saysBruno, glugging on a glass ofcabernet sauvignon "We're at the end ofa peninsula, so we're exposed to winds from the east and the west. Th is is good for the vines.a nd makeslhr grcatwine." Wine production is old news in the region. TheRomans once considered these vintages among thebest in the empire - one emprcss was said to have lived to the ageof86 after insistingondrinkingonlylstrianwine every day. Even today, scraps ofsmashed-up Roman wine containers are periodically found in the earth, relics olmessy nights out a fewmillennia ago. Ever since, Istdahas been synonymous with epicurean living: plentiful seafood and frne wine, late nights and mid-afternoon naps.il s be( ome one of Croalia s clas<ic seasidedestinations - a miniature Cdte dAzur on the Adriatic, with grandhoteis interspersing ffshing villages along the coast, and local trawlers competing for moorings with oligarchs' yachts. Holidaymakers may come and go, but lstria's gastronomic traditions have pndLrred.To the norlh. the low n ofBuiP claims the world's biggestwhite truffles hunted, until recently, with pigs onleashes To the south, centuries-old olive groves are still harvested by hand - their branches mttled by generation aller generation of the same family. Bruno takes me acrossthe Istrian countryside to his vineyard. lt feels like aplacewhere life goesonin slow motion -with sluggish creeks meandering thrcugh the biscuit-coloured earth and tall cypress trees swaying in thebreeze. We arrive and Bruno wandersup and downrows ofvines like a schoolteacherinspecting his class He shows meachunkofvine, recently mangledby an intruder. "Sometimes,
1 . s e a v i e w s f r o mR o v i n j 2. Seafoodrisotto ai RestaurantBLU 3 . B r u n oo u t s i d eh i sw i u e r y 4. An o{ive grove ouisidevodnjan
wildboar get into the vineyard and start nibbling at the grapes,so wehavehunters comehere to shoot them for us." Theboar aie turned into sausages fortheir sins - so they,like Bruno's wines, inevitably wind up on Istria's dinner tables "> INFORMATION FURTHER issetjustoutside ,r Bruno'svineyard,VinaTraPan, (ttaPanhr) thecityofPulainsouther^lsrtia WHERETOEAT on lsifia'swestern afishingtown i" closeto Rovinj, on BtuoffersanexPerimentattake coast,Restaurant 2'811'265;bluhr VaIdeLesso, lstrian cooking(00-385-5 mains 12pn-11Pn;traditional Rovinj; fron< 900) - I. t,
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