
April is going to be quite intense in Zagreb, and for good reason. The Global Wine And Spirits Competition (GWSC) is bringing some of the most respected names in the world of spirits and wines to the first judging event of this caliber in Croatia, and to be frank, the entire region. GWSC is a project by Robert Lukić with a very clear idea: “We want to establish Zagreb as one of the reference places on the world stage of premium spirits and wines.”
An ambitious project launched last year, although it has actually been in development for a long time. Namely, Mr. Lukić’s key goal from the very beginning was to set judging standards that have been current for decades at world competitions such as the London IWSC or the prestigious competition in San Francisco.
This kind of project now has perfect ‘timing’ with the emergence of a ‘new wave’ of Croatian distillers, but also with the public’s increasingly serious interest in spirits, cocktails and bars. However, what is really missing on the domestic scene are relevant judging.
“It’s not that there is no distillate evaluation in Croatia, but the approach and criteria by which most of them work are a bit, so to speak, ‘stuck in time’, not following the principles that have existed in the rest of the world for a long time. This simply has to change and the GWSC was created guided by this very idea.” explains Mr. Lukić.
The desire for progress in Croatia certainly exists. This is also demonstrated by the recently held ‘Rating of Brandies and Alcoholic Beverages’ at the Faculty of Food Technology in Osijek, which, by introducing a 100-point system and updating the criteria and the evaluation approach, has already raised the bar towards world standards. And the feedback from Croatian distillers undoubtedly shows that it was the right move.