2023 Toreta Posip Special Croatia

When you step off the ferry onto Korčula Island, you’re immediately confronted with St. Mark’s Lion, a testament to the 400 years that this now-Croatian island belonged to the Venetian Empire. It’s a reminder that Korčula has always existed at the crossroads of cultures, trade routes, and empires—and that its wines, quietly, have been shaped by centuries of history long before anyone outside the Adriatic was paying attention.

This is the context for the 2023 Toreta Pošip Special.

Korčula is widely regarded as the spiritual home of Pošip, one of Croatia’s most serious and age-worthy white grape varieties. While Pošip is planted elsewhere today, locals will tell you—without hesitation—that the island expressions are the benchmark. Here, vineyards cling to rocky slopes above the sea, rooted in blinding white limestone and battered daily by salt air and relentless sun. Yields are naturally low. Farming is largely manual. There is nothing industrial about viticulture on Korčula.

Toreta is a small, quality-obsessed producer, working with old vines and obsessive selection. “Pošip Special” is not a brand flourish—it’s a real designation, reserved for their most concentrated lots, harvested at optimal ripeness and handled with restraint. This is not the light, neutral Mediterranean white many people expect. This is Pošip with intent.

In the glass, the wine immediately signals seriousness. Ripe citrus oil, stone fruit, wild herbs, and a subtle almond-skin bitterness echo the landscape itself. There’s richness on the palate, but it’s held in check by a core of saline acidity that feels unmistakably maritime. The finish is long, textured, and savory, with a quiet phenolic grip that makes the wine as compelling at the table as it is on its own.

What makes this bottle truly compelling, however, is its rarity. Wines like this almost never leave Croatia. When they do, they tend to vanish into restaurant cellars or private hands. Toreta does not produce large volumes, and Pošip Special represents only a fraction of their output. This is insider wine—something you typically discover by accident, sitting at a seaside konoba, wondering why no one back home is talking about it.

Consider this your shortcut.

The 2023 Toreta Pošip Special is a wine of place, history, and quiet confidence. It doesn’t chase trends or rely on oak to make a point. Instead, it offers a glimpse into one of Europe’s most under-the-radar great white wine regions, delivered with precision and authenticity.

If you’re the kind of drinker who values discovery over familiarity—and wants to pour something genuinely different, with a story that stretches back centuries—this is a bottle you should not miss.