ROXANICH WINERY
FREEDOM BY NATURE
LONG AGED RARE NATURAL WINES
The Roxanich winery represents a proud heritage of more than two decades of winemaking, in one of the world’s most picturesque viticultural landscapes. Nestled between the heartland of Istrian winemaking and the Venetian coasts, Mladen Rožanić continues not only to produce strictly limited quantities of wines with heritages stretching back hundreds of years, but also to evolve with new varieties only just breaking into the global wine scene, producing authentic wines in harmony with nature.
Roxanich Wines
Our selection of 20 organic labels ranges from crisp whites to honeysuckle rosés, to long aged and macerated white, orange and deep, dark and rich reds, divided into three distinct collections: PHILOSOPHY, SORELLE and FIRST ROSES.
A Winemaker’s Story
OBSESSED WITH THE SOUL OF WINE
Mladen Rožanić is perhaps best described as the first movie director of wine. He displays his own handwriting - outsider in the wine business - thinking honest but big, and creating equally honest but big wines. He creates spaces for taste-jumps never seen before, delicate and elegant, unified in one single glass of wine.
No winemaker has shaped the natural wine scene like Mladen Rožanić in recent years. With a maximum of knowledge, he brings wines to bottles with a minimum of intervention.
A Winemaker's Story
Long Aged Rare Natural Wines
Roxanich wines are in constant movement, always dancing into the focal point, they simply alert your attention. A single glass of his masterpieces often catches the whole scene, transforming effortlessly from first to last sip. The collection is too plentiful to be experiences at once by a single wine lover. Like watching a movie from the grand era of Panavision, a simple snapshot is not possible: Each of the wines develops an own narrative, and plays a different role.
Wine Cellar
WINE AWAKENING
Mladen Rožanić gives his wines as much time as they need to harmonize on their own. “Patience is a fantastic cellar technique”, he says. “Because wines need time to find each other.” He works tirelessly on the completion of his vision of earnest natural wine, created with love and minimal intervention, using long forgotten and neglected, ancient vinifying skills, he applies now for more than 25 years.
The Roxanich cellar is located inside the hill, directly beneath the hotel. Each of its four levels is dedicated to a certain part of the winemaking process – vinification and maceration, ageing, and archiving. The grand finale is the tasting room, where one can immerse calmly and deeply into the whole universe of the Roxanich wine experience.
Roxanich in the Media
Traditional Art of Winemaking
BIODYNAMICS PHILOSOPHY
Ancient knowledge, perfected and carefully refined throughout the ages, is woven into each bottle bearing the Venetian family coat of arms from the 13th century.
Our dedication to honesty and all-natural production methods extends not just above-ground, but to our cellars as well. Extraneous influences on the wine are kept to an absolute minimum.
Our wines are fermented with indigenous yeast and matured with their own tannins, derived exclusively from pits, skins and eventually stems of each grape. This guarantees a natural body, nose and mouth-feel we maintain are inimitable and irreplaceable.
At Roxanich Winery, wines are aged in large wooden vats and barrels. This minimizes the area of contact of wood and grape and greatly reduces the infusion of wood tannins into the wine. The barrels and vats are reused as long as the wood remains healthy. This serves to further reduce the hydrolysable tannin emissions.
The result places the wood in its intended role. It becomes a micro-oxygenation membrane, introducing the oxygen into the wine in a natural and controlled manner. Synthetic chemicals are absent from Roxanich’s cellar. Sulphites are kept to minimal, necessary amounts, and the barrels are treated only with natural beeswax.
Terra Rossa
TERROIRE
Grapes for Roxanich’s premiere labels are harvested from Croatia’s most dramatic and coveted wine-growing region: ‘Red Istria’.
Named for its striking red, iron-rich limestone soil, its neutral acidity and high minerality make it perfect for growing many of the region’s signature varietals.
More than 26 hectares supply Roxanich with grapes already bursting with flavor, untarnished by pesticides or any forms of artificial enrichment.
Barring the sandy white roads winding through the greenery and the appearance of the odd four-by-four for harvesting, this is winemaking as our forebears would recognize and (we hope) approve.
Our viticulture follows Rudolf Steiner’s Biodynamics philosophy, and picking is based on organoleptic assessment. Attention is paid to moon phases and days which dictate when to plant, prune and harvest, following Maria Thun’s calendar.
Terroire
VINEYARDS
A disciple of Rhône Valley winemakers, from young age Mladen Rožanić engaged on a global pilgrimage of different houses before finally settling back in his native Istria.
Grapes for Roxanich’s premiere labels are harvested from Croatia’s most dramatic and coveted wine-growing region: ‘Red Istria’. Named for its striking red, iron-rich limestone soil, its neutral acidity and high minerality make it perfect for growing many of the region’s signature varietals.
Roxanich’s vineyards have historically valued lays, recognized since ancient times: Mondellebotte (Bačva), Bussure and Valle are historically known as “best grounds”. The lay’s proximity to the sea shore, yet 200 meters above the sea level, allows us to benefit from a classical thermal exchange.
The slopes of his family vineyard are gentle, with light breezes even at the height of summer and benefit from cool breezes from the mountains to the sea during the night, and from the sea back inland during the day.
“I need to give time to my wines, years to mature. In that way, they receive all the intension, love and care to become a complete, well-balanced elixir of life.”
Mladen Rožanić
Ageing
VINS DE LONGUE GARDE
Mladen quickly realized that wines he was creating had great potential for ageing. Samples kept in the archive keep getting better and better with each passing year. After more than 20 years of winemaking, he is getting very close to the goal.
Wines created for long keeping must be prepared correctly – from specially adjusted maceration processes, through alcohol fermentation, to the later stage of malolactic fermentation. The ageing duration he strives to, as embodiment of Rudolf Steiner’s Biodynamics, is seven years.
Seven is a product of a certain orientation. Great symbolic meaning is connected to this number. It represents the cycle of maturity. The school age of a child. The number of days in a week. The recovery period for our cells.
The Natural
Winemaking Process
Roxanich produces natural wines from both indigenous and internationally recognized grape varieties, in line with highest ecological standards, growing and cultivating the grapes using traditional methods of yield control, practicing minimal intervention. In the vineyard - only natural elements like copper and sulphur are admitted in minimal quantities, and in the cellar - sulphur only symbolically when needed.
At the Roxanich Winery, wines are aged in large wooden vats and barrels. This minimizes the area of contact of wood and grape and greatly reduces the infusion of wood tannins into the wine. The barrels and vats are reused as long as the wood remains healthy. This serves to further reduce the hydrolysable tannin emissions. The result places the wood in its intended role. It becomes a micro-oxygenation membrane, introducing the oxygen into the wine in a natural and controlled manner. Synthetic chemicals are absent from Roxanich’s cellar. Sulphites are kept to minimal, necessary amounts, and the barrels are treated only with natural beeswax.
Grapes are vinified in specially shaped barrels, wooden vats of 55 to 75 hl capacity, where fermentation and maceration take place. After pressing and first decanting, the wine is reracked in these same vats as well as 36 hl casks where it is kept to age and mature for years. The wines are characterized by long skin contact which varies from vintage to vintage – 4 to 8 weeks for the reds, and for the whites from a day up to six months.
