Arise Slavonia! Return of World-Class Slavonian Oak Barrels

For those of you passionate about buying high-quality Croatian excellence at excellent prices, be it wine barrels, furniture or construction materials.

I love everything about this story - how an entrepreneurial forester and expert cooper came together to resurrect an industry where Croatia is a global force (indeed in the top three in the world), using Croatian materials and labour.

Slavonian oak is among the most highly prized in the world in the wine industry for the quality of its oak barrels. A once thriving business in eastern Croatia, the war in 1991 halted all operations, and raw oak was exported to Italy to be turned into barrels and then reexported back to Croatia.

No longer. Meet the team from www.bachva.hr who are bringing about a quiet revolution in the oak barrel industry, with top global quality barrels at 30-40% cheaper prices. And the top wineries in Croatia are queueing up to embrace this local excellence, as I found out on my fascinating day with the chaps from Bachva when we delivered some barrels to regular client Vinarija Krauthaker (and were treated to a quite mind-blowing tasting).

And it is not just oak barrels. Bachva is also producing high quality wooden furniture from ten types of tree, supplying tables to some of the top restaurants in Zagreb.

Congrats to Zdenko, Darko, Mislav and the rest of the Bachva time. Such an incredible story, and such an excellent day discovering it all. If you are looking to Buy Croatian, there can be fewer better quality products.