The region of Dalmatia has always coexisted with wine. Having been watered for more than two thousand years by human toil and sweat, the grapevine of this region gives life to the Dalmatian man. Because of this, it is often said that wine runs through the veins of the Dalmatian peasant farmer. It has been a long time since the grapevine, which gives birth to wine, stopped being treated as a mere agricultural product in Dalmatia. From time immemorial, here wine has been treated as a gift from heaven, a tear of the Mother Earth and a source of life?.

Greek and Roman settlers and the Illyrian tribe of the Delmatae were first to grow the grapevine in Dalmatia. Grape growing and wine making in Dalmatia, particularly in the Cetina region, are witnessed by the remains of the grapevine with a mould for casting bronze objects and clay statues, found in the archaeological sites of the Bronze Age Illyrian lake dwellings near Zadar and Sinj (the Otok village).

Having arrived in Dalmatia and conquered the Illyrian Delmatae in the mid 1st century, the Romans built their fortifications and founded new settlements. In the Cetina region, the 7th legion was quartered at Gardun and Čitluk. The Romans had already been familiar with the grapevine and had great success in growing it, owing to the fact that the agricultural production was of special importance to them since they considered it the basis of their power. Roman soldiers greatly contributed to spreading of the grapevine through the popularisation of wine drinking habits and grapevine cuttings during their campaigns. In this way, wine making spread across Dalmatia in the period of Roman rule.

The main grape growing and wine making area in the Cetina region includes the slopes on the left and right sides of the Sinjsko Polje Field, in the villages of Radošić, Lučane, Suhač, Hrvace, Garjak, Gala, Potravlje, Čaporice... In the old vineyards red grape varieties were mainly grown such as, for example, ninčuša, glavinka, plavina, babić, which was not the case with white grapes, maraština, debit, vugava, homemade white, and a bit of crljenak.

The basic characteristic of the traditional wine making method included blending of the red and white grape varieties. In the specific production and climatic conditions, this method gave a wine light red in colour, medium dry and with the high acid content as compared to other Dalmatian wines.

These wine types are fresh and very drinkable, known as hrvaština (rvašćina, hrvašćina). Their freshness, the tannin content and colour put them somewhere between full-bodied Dalmatian and light continental wines. Since that type of wine was not likely to remain unnoticed, a great number of Dalmatian wines appeared to be the most pleasant surprise in the Vienna trade exhibition of 1890. A year later, the Cetina hrvaština featured prominently in the same exhibition taking place in Zagreb, together with other Dalmatian wines. From ancient times, wine has thus been interwoven with the Dalmatian man, accompanying as an important Christian symbol all his life's ups and downs, victories and defeats, his life and death.

The Mažurin Family Farm has cherished a centuries-old family tradition of the Cetina region grape growing and wine making.

Through the revitalisation of the family newly planted grapevines dating from the mid 20th century we strive to maintain the authenticity of the old grape varieties of this region from which our wine has been made, but which have also proved to be an excellent choice for grafting the grapevine. Grapes from such vineyards give the old, authentic hrvaština wine of Sinj, an indispensable link in the chain of the rich gastro-oenological offer of this region.

Mladen Mažurin