Have you ever dreamt of being a travel journalist with a swanky magazine that would fly you around the globe to document your exploits? Poppy, our novel’s heroine, did! She even achieved her lofty goal but found herself unfulfilled by her life. When she considers the last time she was truly happy, Alex, Poppy’s former travel buddy, enters our story. While these two went to the same college and are from the same Ohio town, they couldn’t be more different. Thanks to a chatty photographer, Alex and Poppy’s adventure to Croatia was the “most beautiful and worst trip.” Because their trip to Croatia was pivotal, we joined them by sipping a hearty red from the Croatian Istria region: a 2019 Teran by the winemaker Fakin. It presents notes of blackberry, black cherry, gunpowder and black pepper and once sipped becomes tart and mineral forward. Croatia has been cultivating grapes for 2,500 years, so they have learned what grapes each of the four regions, Slavonia, Danube, Dalmatia, and Istria, grow best. Croatia is just beginning to share what they have learned with the world.

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