🍇 Plavac Mali

Plavac mali is a black-berried Vitis vinifera wine grape from Croatia. VIVC enters it as Plavac Mali Crni (passport 9549) and gives Croatia as the country of origin, the species Vitis vinifera subsp. sativa, hermaphrodite flowers, complete seed formation, the use as wine grape and chlorotype D. The variety is registered in the European Catalogue.

VIVC lists 63 synonyms, among them Plavac, Plavac Mali Kasteljanski Crni, Plavac Veliki, Plavac Srednji and Crnac. Accessions are held by eight institutes (codes BGR013, DEU098, FRA139, HRV041, ITA388, MNE001, ROM017, USA028). VIVC itself gives no parentage.

The parentage was studied by Maletić and colleagues (Acta Horticulturae 603, 2003). SSR analysis at 25 loci showed that Zinfandel and Plavac mali share at least one allele at every locus, consistent with a parent-offspring relationship, and likelihood analysis indicated that Zinfandel and the rare Dalmatian cultivar Dobričić are the parents of Plavac mali. In the same study a vine from a mixed vineyard at Kaštela near Split was identified, with 10 SSR markers, as Crljenak kaštelanski, which has the same SSR profile as Zinfandel.

Plavac Mali is not Zinfandel, but its child: a natural cross of Crljenak Kaštelanski (the Croatian Zinfandel) and Dobričić. It ripens late and makes full-bodied, high-alcohol dry reds, the flagship red of Dalmatia. The Pelješac peninsula holds its two famous names. Dingač was Croatia's first protected wine designation and demands 100% Plavac Mali from registered steep parcels with at least 13.5% natural alcohol. Postup, the second one, sits on gentler slopes.