Holy trinity of wine from Zupa - After success in US market, Budimir winery from Aleksandrovac prepares sparkling wine Tamjanika

(Budimir winery)

Ruzica Dzulina, Triada, Tamjanika and other wines from the winery Budimir are promoted by Emir Kusturica, Johnny Depp enjoys the nectar of Zupa in France, and grandpa Buda Zdravkovic is saving his most valuable wine for Selma Hayek to try it when she comes to Mokra Gora.

The winery Zdravkovic in Zupa's Aleksandrovac exists for a long time, officially since 1878, when Zivadin Zdravkovic was decorated by Duke Milan Obrenovic for his efforts in liberation wars. One year earlier, as local residents say, Zivadin brought wine from his cellar for the army to take communion before the decisive battle for the liberation of the Prokuplje area. Authorities highly appreciated that. The decoration is framed and now hangs on the wall of the wine cellar, while 1878 is recognized as the official year of the formation of the wine cellar to honor the memory of that event.

This wine cellar is today called Budimir after Budimir Zdravkovic - grandpa Buda, as people call him there. Aside from being a "wine authority" in Zupa, grandpa Buda is also one of the oldest active winemakers in our country.

- The most famous wines with the Budimir label are red and white Triada wines. Triada is Greek for trinity, which is in our case made up of the country, family and wine – Aleksandar Raskovic, the man who has made Budimir a worthy contender to French chateaus, says in a talk with eKapija.

Aleksandar Raskovic, who is called Aca Magelan because of his love of sailing, is grandpa Buda's son-in-law. By the way, Raskovic is also one of the top sports managers at the Wasserman Media Group. He started playing his new role in the movie called "Winemaking" primarily by investing in the construction of a modern wine cellar and the procurement of equipment (mainly from Germany), as well as through contacts with top technologists, enologists...

Wines from this cellar represent an interesting blend of grandpa Buda's experience and the knowledge of young Italian enologist Michele Beano from Friuli, who came to Aleksandrovac few years ago and quickly found a common language with the locals.

This winery is supplied with grapes from the edges of local slopes. As Raskovic explains, although drought destroyed much of it, there are enough grapes to satisfy their needs, at least for now.

Our interlocutor has recently bought few hectares of land under 127-year-old vine, which he is particularly proud of. On the other hand, Budimir winery will soon get a modern bottling line for the sparkling wine Tamjanika, the first wine of that kind in Serbia.

By the way, Tamjanika is an autochthonous variety of grape in Zupa, as well as the most popular wine among foreigners.

(Aleksandar Raskovic)

- A bottle of Buda's sparkling wine Tamjanika will cost about EUR 5 - Raskovic announces.

There are currently about 400,000 liters of wine in Budimir's cellars. Unofficially, Raskovic has invested nearly EUR 2 million in the winery.

- Coco Chanel said: "Fashion fades, only style remains the same." Our aim is to create a style, a top-quality wine exclusively made of locally grown vine, using grandpa Buda's big experience and the same method of winemaking that has been in use here for thousands of years, of course with the help of all advanced technologies. We are interested in developing wine tourism, but Aleksandrovac, which should be the center of winemaking in Serbia, is one of the few cities in the country that have no hotel – Raskovic stresses.

As he says, they have not got much benefit from being placed on the map of wine roads, but they definitely benefited from his recent stay in the USA and the presentation of wines from the Balkans at the Balkan Wine Fest in that country. Although the quantities of wine this winery exports to the USA are small, it is nevertheless a safe and important step for Serbian wines.

When it comes to wine distribution in Serbia, it is possible to find wines from this winery in all better restaurants and wine stores in Belgrade. As he says, they will never offer their wines to regular stores and gas stations.

The winery Budimir plans to conquer the markets of China, Hong Kong and Singapore by the end of the next year.

Jelena Djelic