Croatian native importing 130 wine labels from Croatia to the U.S.

Mirena Bagur, co-owner of Croatian Wine Imports with Brad Smith, wine consultant and advisor of Croatian Premium Wine Imports at Boston Wine Expo (Photo: Private album)

Mirena Bagur is a Croatian native who has a passion for wine and imports 130 wine labels from her home country to the USA. Joanna K. Tzouvelis, a regional food and dining reporter for WickedLocal.com, a Boston-based media company within the USA TODAY network, found out more. 

By Joanna K. Tzouvelis

Croatia that has gained fame as a vacation destination through movies and television series filmed in its vast terrain, including “Game of Thrones,”“Star Wars: The Last Jedi,”“Faraway,” “Mamma Mia 2” and “The Weekend Away.” But there’s a lot more to Croatia than a beautiful landscape — such as its vineyards, which produce good-tasting wine.

A resident of a Boston suburb Revere, Mirena Bagur, who is originally from Croatia, is proprietor of Croatian Premium Wine Imports, which imports 130 wine labels from 40 wineries in four of Croatia’s wine regions. She started the business in 2019.

After watching the market for a number of years, Bagur began to realize there was an opportunity to import Croatian wines.

“We’re not the first ones to import Croatian wine, but I think we’re the first ones to actually build a business of trying to promote Croatian wines and starting to create a category,” she said.

After moving to America in the 1980s as an exchange student, Bagur studied international trade and worked in the high-tech and marketing industries. She said that background helped her start her company with her husband, Win Burke.

“I have a passion for the country and I have a passion for wine, so for me it was a question of finding all the pieces of the puzzle at the same time, in one place,” Bagur said.

Bagur grew up in Dalmatia, Croatia, which is famous for its wines. Her grandfather, Mate Bagur, would bring her to work with him in the family vineyard when she was young.

“I was part of the vineyard world,” Bagur said. “When you’re little, everybody goes into the vineyard to do the grape harvest. The little kids do the same thing, just on a lower level.”

This was Bagur’s introduction to the wine world. She recalls eating grapes from the baskets on a donkey’s back as she rode it, transporting grapes back to the cellar.

Mirena Bagur and her husband, Win Burke, co-founders of Croatian Premium Wine Imports (Photo: Private album)

Educating about Croatian wine

The mission of Croatian Premium Wine Imports is to introduce and promote the culture, wines and cuisine of Croatia in the United States, said Bagur.

“My goal, as a Croatian-born American, is to bridge my two countries,” she said.

She’s doing a lot of outreach and education together with the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Croatian National Tourism Board in Croatia and the American Chamber of Commerce in Croatia to educate people about Croatian wine and why it should be tried.

“It’s very difficult to position a whole new category of wines in a country that has hundreds of thousands of wine labels from abroad,” she said.  Through a mutual friend, Bagur met wine consultant Brad Smith, of Brookline, who now works for her as an adviser.

Smith helped Bagur test the market with people he knew in the wine business.

“I loved the wines,” Smith said. “I loved the story behind them. And I was smitten by Mirena’s passion, as well as that of her husband, Win. “I’ll add that Croatia is beautiful and helping Mirena gets me there — to visit wineries and the beautiful terrain where they’re located.”

How Croatian wine is different from that of other countries

“It’s both similar and different to what we mostly know in the United States,” said Smith, of Croatian wine. “When we run tastings, people are amazed by the quality of every wine. A common refrain is, ‘I’ve never tasted anything quite like this and I love it.’”

Sun setting at the Terra Madre Winery in Croatia. (Photo: Croatian Premium Wine Imports)

Croatian Premium Wine sells several indigenous wine varieties, which means they don’t grow anywhere else, said Bagur.

Most of the wine imported by Bagur’s company is organic. “Croatian wineries are trying to be as sustainable as they can be,” she said.  Organic wineries do not use chemicals in the field or in production. “This means you won’t get a headache the next day,” said Bagur.

One of the white wines Bagur imports from Croatia is Pošip, which is citrusy and goes great with seafood, she said. Red Croatian wines are usually oaked, tannic and strong and go great with red or game meat.

Istrian Malvasia served with pasta with truffles in Konoba Fakin, Motovun, Istria (Photo: Croatian Premium Wine Imports)

Zinfandel actually originated in Croatia, she said. Croatians call it “Tribidrag.”  “They’re starting to get phenomenal ratings from Wine Enthusiast and Decanter,” said Bagur.

Croatian wines are distributed to local stores and restaurants in US, Canada, Europe, and Australia and also via the online shop shipping  to most US states.

Article published with permission of Joanna K. Tzouvelis.