Interview of winemaker Josip Franić

Please tell us a few words about your winery’s history and where exactly it’s located in Croatia

We are Winery Franić, located in a small village Vina near town of Vrgorac we are close to highway A1 also called Dalmatina which refers to our macro location that is in Split-Dalmatia country. Our noble family Franić has a wine-making tradition for over 150 years but that was for domestic use only. My father Goran, agronomist and oenologist, decided to make it professional by planting first vineyard in 2007,  opening winery and making path to stepping on the world wine scene.

When did you start the mass production of your wines and consequently their trading..?

Mass production started in 2014 when we made 4500 liters of wine. Mostly there was red wine (3000 liters) and also white wine with production of 1500 liters. First trading was on our doorsteps, but today we sell our wine through distributors, sellers of delicacy, and a few hotels and restaurants.

What exactly is your role in the winery?

My role in winery was from its beginning as an auxiliary worker but since this year I decided to make a business path as a marketing coordinator of winery. My job consists of planning marketing strategy, maintaining marketing activities, maintaining accounts on social media (Facebook and Instagram), and creative planning of new products in cooperation with my father, sister and mother. I am amateur but constant learning of process helps me to keep in line with my ambition to be specialist in this type of job one day.

How developed is the winemaking business in Croatia..?

Winemaking business was not so technically developed in the time of socialist Yugoslavia, but after 1990s it was developing with a very high speed. Many winemakers from island of Korčula, peninsula of Pelješac made Croatia’s first premium quality wine in 1990s which was a good sign of progress in this activity. Our winery made its first premium quality wine in 2013, which was the first premium quality wine from Vrgorac’s vineyard. I would like to say that Vrgorac’s vineyard is the biggest vineyard in Croatia, as from the aspect of planted vines (13 million vines). Selling our wine on Croatian market is in one hand difficult because of all the more imported wines from Macedonia, Kosovo etc. that are being put on shelf of stores. But we do hope that Croatian wines will be more protected from Government and because of the quality of most Croatian wines and experiences of wine makers that is every year increasing, vision of Croatian wine making and culture of drinking wine will be realized.

Do you export your wines to other countries and if yes to which ones?

Currently we don’t export our wines, but long-term plans determine to make exports within the time of 5 years. Our work is everyday dedicated to planning of appearance on world wine market and exporting maximum of 40% of our total production.

Which grape varieties do you grow in your estate?

We started with planting of Croatian authentic grape variety Trnak in 2007, then we planted grapes Maraština(also called Rukatac) and Kaštelanski Crljenak( genetically very similar to Zinfandel and Primitivo, but also a genetic father of Plavac Mali). These varieties are authentic Croatian and we decided to grow their popularity because they have great characteristics which become real when you taste wine of these grape varieties. Wine-making institute in Zagreb gave our Trnak badge of premium quality wine in 2013 and in 2015, wine from 2016 is still maturing so we tend to have 2016 premium.

Please tell us your business and career goals for the next years.

My business goal firstly is to make increase of sales for 30-60% (to someone these numbers are too much but this is a challenge for me). Also with increase of sales there comes growing our business by planting 20000 vines more in 5 years. My career goals are related to becoming more experienced in planning, maintaining activities and solving problems. Helping my family’s winery is my greatest opportunity to become better person and businessman oneday. Wine enjoying culture in Croatia is not so widespread and I try to connect with other wineries to realize it, I see wine culture as a future of my city and country. I am a visionary which helps me to be ambitious in business and my personal life, so with visions I make many goals that are a challenge to me. I always say to myself: if you don’t try and work, you will never know how it is! 

The new trend for wineries is to be open to the public, i.e. the so-called visitable wineries. Is it in your future business plans to convert your winery to a visitable one?

There is a great trend that wineries are opened for public visits, because people have the chance to learn something more about wine. To hear a few words of wine maker can help you in understanding why are some wines so special. Our business plans were already to make winery visitable and we made every needed condition for our winery to be visited. We are currently in organisation of wine tour that started in July 2017, so everyone interested in Croatian wines is invited.