The cultivation of wines and work in the vineyards and cellars are an everyday occupation of the Kos family. Since the ancient times, the same was done by their distant ancestors – their great-grandfathers, on the same hillocks. One of them, Jura Kos, born in 1872, and his father Toma, are remembered by Mirko Kos, a competent winegrower and the owner of the wine cellar, who, together with his son Željko, is preserving the tradition of this family. At the end of the last century grandfather Jura possessed some grapevines providing him with the means of survival, those grapevines pertaining to old sorts. However, around 1890, everything was almost destroyed by the Phylloxera. Instead of wines, everyone was drinking apple juice.
The salvation came in the form of the first educated agronomists with new sorts of overseas noble vines, as well as novel methods of breeding, protection (with blue chough) and soil cultivation. These new sorts were also planted by the Kos family, on the hillocks overlooking the village of Hrnjanec.
The soil suitable for vineyards was prepared solely by manual ploughing, those vineyards still being in their possession. And when droughts or exceedingly cold winters used to destroy all other crops, the vines have endured and provided more than just refreshment for the family. The proximity of Zagreb and people that have appreciated and bought their fine droplet at Kos’s, had been the salvation and have kept the family together. It is the same nowadays. This is why the vineyards and the wines are the symbol of their livelihood.
From 1990, the wines are being increasingly bottled – into 0.7-litre bottles, and less sold as opened bulk wines. The Kos family has, since then, invested into a modern cellar, machines and devices without which good quality can not be obtained. Modern equipment also enabled fast processing, while quality sorts provide excellent wines that are being demanded by all the more fastidious market.
