ROXANICH WINERY: mladen rožanić talks long aged biodynamic rare natural wine (and about his spectacular heritage design hotel)
DB: The main slogan of the Roxanich brand is ‘Freedom by Nature.’ What does freedom mean to you? How important is freedom in today’s society?
MR: For me, freedom is the most important thing in one’s life. Freedom to think and act honestly leads to a genuine, simple yet authentic way of understanding life and balance of mind, body and spirit. I am dedicated to exploring the role and reliability of thinking in the formation of knowledge. I became free when I realized the strength of my own personality. The beauty of life is in growth and development. I was not the same person in 2000, neither in 2010, and especially not now. My skills and routines have changed. We can apply this on wine as well. I never try to repeat the taste of the previous year. I try to give my interpretation of the vintage.
views overlook the Croatian vineyards
MR (continued): Our claim ‘Freedom by Nature’ is the essence of everything Roxanich stands for in front of customers and partners. Based both on our own strictly natural winemaking practices, as well as my personal beliefs that my six daughters and me are building the whole family business on, ‘Freedom by Nature’ is more than just the sum of its parts. It’s a strong philosophical statement inspired both by Rudolf Steiner’s teachings about nature and personal freedom, as well as an authentic, intimate historical background the Roxanich family, with our ancient Venetian heritage from the 1200’s.
The Roxanich brand stands firmly behind our family values of being an honest proposition for independent people, wishing them to form their own, highly informed and cultivated opinion about natural winemaking, and discover new frontiers in life as ultimate expressions of personal freedom.
the dining area inside the design hotel
DB: You have achieved recognition all over the world, even if you are a self-proclaimed disrupter, almost outsider in the wine business. What do you owe your success to?
MR: I am mechanical engineer by profession and a self-educated winemaker. My passion towards wine and a will to start vinifying the grapes was born in 1998 when I was in my forties. Actually, 1998 was the first vintage I had vinified on my own on a private garage level, and from then on, the challenge took me over completely.
I believe the secret of my success is thinking honestly but big, so I try to create equally honest but big wines. I pursue a new vision for winemaking. I try to complete the vision of earnest natural wine, created with love and minimal intervention, using long forgotten and neglected, ancient vinifying skills, and the public sometime happens to recognize that effort. If you are doing something honest from the heart, your efforts will find the way to the like-minded people and wider public. Mind you, natural winemaking is still a small niche worldwide, and still not known and spread well enough, both on producers’ and consumers’ sides.
inside the design hotel
DB: Roxanich connects like-minded individuals and businesses. You are recognized as global leader, innovator and a man of uncompromising vision and passion, who said mediocrity had no place in his basement. Is the ultimate goal for you reaching perfection or something else?
MR: I don’t yearn after formal perfection. I am obsessed with the soul of wine. Each of the wines develops an own narrative, and plays a different role. The wine remains unsharp and unfinished by intention. I create spaces for delicate and elegant taste-jumps, unified in one single glass of wine. That’s because I pursue a new vision for winemaking. To achieve that, I need to change the awareness of wine lovers. Why should winemaking always promise the ideal interpretation of reality, and not depict the reality itself? My wines are honest, raw yet delicate, as nature itself.
inside the design hotel
MR (continued): I realized that time plays a significant role in all natural processes. In the cellar, we give the wines as much time as they need to harmonize on their own. We do not touch up our wines and make them uniform. We wish to give you the taste of each particular vintage. We practice the art of bringing all influential elements together that frame that particular year. This way, you can taste its whole journey in each sip.
Mladen Rožanić’s daughters, the six sorelle (sisters)
DB: How do you define wine? Could you distinguish any particular wine label as your favorite?
MR: Wine for me is one media that can tell you a lot of stories, so we should take time to enjoy wine. Enjoying wine doesn’t mean simply consuming an alcoholic drink. It’s part of a lifestyle, part of a pleasure path that you share with your best friends and family. I put the same label of love in every vintage I vinify, so I cannot have the favorite one. Just like with my six daughters.
Mladen Rožanić inside the winery
DB: Roxanich wines are known as connoisseur wines for very special evenings. Do you agree with this opinion?
MR: Our selection of more than twenty strictly organic wine labels, that range from crisp whites to honeysuckle rosés, to long aged and macerated whites, orange as well as deep, dark and rich reds, is too plentiful to be offered only to the distinguished palate of a wine connoisseur.
Among them one can find the appropriate Roxanich wine for every occasion. A good wine is only the one you like, and I believe both connoisseurs and non-expert as well will have no difficulties to find their personal favorite Roxanich wines.
