Graševina poured from the world’s largest “living” oak barrel in Erdut
The barrel was built in 1989, each of its staves representing one oak tree, and all of them held together by 3.5 tonnes of iron hoops.
Wine was poured from the world’s largest wine barrel currently in use, with a capacity of 75,000 litres, in which local Graševina had aged for one year, in Erdut in easternmost Croatia.
“It was a 2020 vintage, with 13% alcohol by volume and total acidity of six grams per litre”, explained Damir Risek, chief oenologist at the Erdut vineyards.
“This barrel is our pride and joy, a tourist attraction, and a monument to the world’s best wine aging wood, the Slavonian oakwood”, he added proudly.
The barrel was built in 1989, each of its staves representing one oak tree, and all of them held together by as much as 3.5 tonnes of iron hoops. Special limited-series Graševina will be bottled from this barrel in the coming days, which will be available in the market.
Maja Celing Cerić
Damir Risek, chief oenologist
The Erdut Winery has a cellar with the capacity of six million litres and 450 hectares of its own vineyards, making it one of the biggest wineries in Croatia. Graševina takes up as much as 70 percent of their vineyard surfaces.
In course of the last three years, they restructured some of their vineyards and replanted 89 hectares, raising their production to the current level of about 2.5 million litres, Member of the Board Dunja Vukmirović told us. According to Dunja, they are happy with their sales: 95% of their production is sold in Croatia, and 5% is exported.
Maja Celing Cerić
The barrel in numbers
The Erdut vineyards’ giant barrel is the world’s largest wine barrel currently in use. With a capacity of 75,000 litres of wine (which equals 100,000 bottles), it was built in 1989 by the company DIK Đurđenovac (a wood industry conglomerate). It took as many as 109 oak trees – almost an entire Slavonian forest! – to make this titan, measuring six metres in length, and five metres in diameter.
The carvings were added some ten years later, courtesy of Slavonian sculptor Mato Tijardović and his art colony. The barrel is adorned with Croatian “pleter” (distinctive interlace pattern found in pre-Romanesque Croatian art) and Last Supper motives, along with motives depicting work in the vineyard, and the festivities held to celebrate its completion.
Maja Celing Cerić
