What is even more interesting is that such success did not come to a winemaker who built a career by meticulously following market trends and catering to the tastes of international critics. Instead, it came to a man who, for the past fifteen years or so, has done almost the exact opposite. While many argued that the future belonged to lighter wines, earlier harvests, and styles designed to appeal to the widest possible range of consumers, Tonči Marijan steadfastly demonstrated that Plavac Mali reveals its true greatness precisely when allowed to be what it is: a Mediterranean variety brimming with sunshine, character, and energy, capable of producing wines that command respect rather than seeking approval.
If only I could do something like this...
There is something almost paradoxical about it. The man who won the greatest international acclaim for Plavac Mali is the very person who was least willing to adapt the variety to international expectations. Anyone who has ever sat at a table with Tonči, listened to him talk about wine, or spent a few hours in his tasting room in Pitve, knows that he is a man whose mind is harder to change than the weather forecast. In his world, there are good wines and those that make a person sigh: Oh my, if only I could create something like this... He is generally uninterested in anything in between.
Hvar has always fascinated him
Perhaps that is precisely why his wine journey was never merely a business venture. After years spent in senior positions at Dalmacijavino and Badel 1862, where he gained experience few Croatian winemakers could match, he decided to leave the security of a major corporate system and return to the island. For someone who had built a career at the country’s largest wine companies, this was a decision difficult to justify through economic logic alone. It is easier to understand as the result of an obsession. Hvar had always fascinated him, not only as his native island but as a place of immense, underutilized viticultural potential; a place that had lived off wine for centuries yet, despite all the gifts nature had bestowed upon it, had somehow settled for being less significant than it could have been.
That obsession gave rise to a winery housed in a former lavender distillery in Pitve, a space that, like so much else on the island, bore the traces of a bygone era. As lavender gradually vanished from the Hvar landscape, Tonči decided to build a new wine story right there. He was convinced that Hvar’s future lay not only in tourism, rental apartments, and seasonal earnings but also in wines fine enough to capture the world's attention. Fifteen years ago, such a conviction did not seem particularly realistic.
How to match the world's greatist reds?
At that time, Croatian winemaking was still searching for its own identity, while the international market was dominated by grape varieties whose names were recognized across every continent. In such a climate, stubbornly insisting that Plavac Mali could produce wines capable of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the world’s great reds seemed a bit like a Hajduk fan booking a hotel in mid-February to celebrate a championship title win. It wasn't impossible, but it certainly wasn't a popular view among realists. The problem was that Tonči Marijan never showed much of an inclination toward realism.
Faith in Plavac was like faith in Hajduk
Anyone who knows Tonči, knows that his faith in Plavac Mali isn't the only thing he has refused to adjust to reality over the years. His faith in Hajduk is just as steadfast. While boards, coaches, presidents, investors, sporting directors and entire generations of disappointed fans came and went, Tonči remained among those who managed to find a new reason for optimism every year. There is actually a certain logic to this. A man who spent fifteen years convincing the wine world that Plavac Mali could stand shoulder to shoulder with the world's greatest wines is unlikely to give up on the idea that Hajduk will one day be what it once was. You cannot convince such people that defeats are final, because they view the world through possibilities rather than league tables.
His now-legendary statement that he loathes Plavac Mali with 13 percent alcohol because it is a second-rate wine has, over the years, elicited laughter, astonishment, and approval in equal measure. Yet, behind this remark lay no desire to provoke, but rather a deep conviction that the greatest sin against a grape variety is attempting to strip away what makes it unique. When Tonči speaks of great Plavacs, he is not merely discussing alcohol, tannins, or concentration: He is speaking of identity, of the fact that a wine must have the right to speak with its own voice, even when that voice runs counter to current trends.
He planted new vines last year
That is precisely why, over the years, he has come across as a man fighting his own private battle. While others debated trends, he spoke of vineyard sites. While others pored over market analyses, he was planting new vines. Last year, he planted two thousand new vines on Hvar, more than all the other winemakers on the island combined. That fact perhaps best illustrates the difference between Tonči Marijan and most of his peers. He does not think in terms of the next harvest or the next tourist season; he thinks like a man trying to leave a mark.
He doesn't make wines, but souvenirs
That is why his wines have always been more than just products. It is no coincidence that he often says he does not actually produce wines, but rather souvenirs. By this, he does not mean the kind of souvenirs sold alongside magnets and postcards, but bottles in which he attempts to preserve a piece of the place, the vintage, the vineyard site and his own character. Anyone who tastes his wines quickly realizes that they cannot be separated from the man who makes them. They embody the same stubbornness, the same Mediterranean temperament, and the same refusal to compromise that you find in every conversation with their creator. Perhaps that is why the symbolism of this year’s victory is so beautiful.
The wine that won the Best in Show title is named Plaža (beach). It is hard to imagine a word that sounds less pretentious. While many winemakers aiming to conquer the world might reach for Latin names, mythical creatures, ancient noble titles, or philosophical concepts sounding like the title of a lost medieval manuscript, Tonči Marijan chose a word every Dalmatian associates with a towel slung over the shoulder, flip-flops, the shade of pine trees, a card game of briškula, and pleasantly whiling away the time. In a land where the beach is far more often synonymous with fjaka, that state of blissful, languid idleness, than with global success, there is something almost literary about the fact that Plaža itself ended up at the pinnacle of the wine world.
First Decanter gold he won in 2019
There is something deeply Hvarian and deeply Tonči-esque in that. It is as if he wanted to demonstrate once more that one does not need to pretend to be something else to be taken seriously. It is enough to be who you are, provided you do it well enough. When he won his first Decanter Gold for his Vron Bod Plavac Mali in 2019, many saw that success as a singular, exceptional moment. Great wine stories do occasionally produce one miraculous vintage that is never repeated. Six years later, such an explanation no longer rings true. The Best in Show title for the 2021 Plavac Plaža is no fluke, just as it is no coincidence that the same man stands behind both successes.
He will remain the same
After the first major triumph, one could still speak of an exception. After the second, there is little room left for that kind of consolation. What we are witnessing today is, in fact, the validation of a long-held vision, perhaps even the definitive answer to those who believed that Plavac Mali could be an interesting local variety, but not a wine capable of achieving the highest international acclaim. Tonči Marijan will likely remain the same. He will continue to speak what is on his mind, plant vines when others are giving up, discuss Plavac Mali as if defending his family’s honor and believe in things that sometimes seem far-fetched to others. Some might call it stubbornness, others vision, and some others typical Dalmatian dišpet (defiant spite). It is likely a bit of all of the above.
After all, this is a man who once turned down the chance to stay and play football in Germany, who left the upper echelons of the Croatian wine industry to return to Pitve, who spent years insisting that Plavac Mali could compete in the world's top league, and who still believes Hajduk will become champions. After two major Decanter triumphs, it might be wise to acknowledge that with such people, the line between stubbornness and vision often becomes apparent only after many years. The award didn't come because he does things like everyone else.
The award come because he is different
And that is precisely the greatest value of this story. Tonči Marijan didn't win Best in Show by doing what everyone else does. He won it by doing the exact opposite for a long time. While many tried to explain what Plavac Mali couldn't be, he persistently demonstrated what it could become. Now that a Plavac from Hvar has ranked among the world's best wines, it is no longer a matter of opinion, conviction, or local pride. It is a fact. For years, Tonči Marijan maintained that Plavac Mali could compete in the global wine league. Now, for the second time, he has brought home the trophy as proof.
This year's Decanter judging was highly successful for Croatian wines. Read here to find out who won Platinum and Gold medals.