I was at the Belmont Media Center the other day as I am a host on that channel as well and I ran into an old friend – Mirena Bagur.

I spoke about Mirena a while back and talked about the wonderful wines that she imports from her native Croatia.

She had brought a few cases to the Belmont event and they were all big hits! But when we were talking, she told me that some of her wines had recently won some new awards, so I wanted to share the news with Matt’s meals fans.

Apparently, Mirena and her countrymen submitted wines from 13 wineries to the TEXSOM Awards and still came away with 21 awards, including a Best of Show for their Teran Rosé, a platinum award for Istarska, and five gold medals for various other varietals, including the rare and delicious Graševina and Plavac Mali!

As TEXSOM has been around for 40 years and has itself been lauded as one of the best wine events by industry experts, this is no small thing, especially when you consider what a relatively small producer Croatia is.

However, with Mirena’s support, Croatian wine is being recognized- and rightfully so!

She represents 45 wineries in Croatia and is constantly importing new varietals, such as the Posip and Zinfandel (which, she informs me, originated from Croatia!).

Word is that Morena will soon be selling her wines at Art’s Specialties but be sure to ask for Croatian wines at your favorite shop so more people can see what all the Balkan buzz is about!