This year’s traditional Grape Ball brought joy and happines to the town of Sremski Karlovci, crowded by visitors. They were attracted here by the smells and tastes of secret family recipes for Bermet wine and kuglof, cheerful songs of “tamburitza” bands and young folklore dancers.
Last weekend the Grape Ball in Sremski Karlovci was held, and the festival atmosphere in honor of this year’s grape harvest took over “the wine capital”. Along the central street, exhibitors presented their best wines on wooden stands, all ready for the moment of truth when wine-lovers would pass their judgment – whose wine tastes best and is most fragrant.
Gathered around stands, experienced wine admirers and some who are yet to get acquainted with exquisite tastes of wines by old masters from Sremski Karlovci, sampled Merlot, Cabernet, Riesling and young Portuguiser. Nevertheless, Bermet, an authentic desert wine of this region and the pride and joy of local winemakers, dominated the Grape Ball. White bermet or black, buyers couldn’t make their mind which one was better and which one to take home.
And as Bermet goes best with “kuglof” (Gugelhupf or Bundt cake), local women all dressed in old folk costumes of the Vojvodina region, displayed a variety of cakes with different tastes just next to the wine stands. Some were red with cherries, others were two-colored with chocolate, but they were all covered with sugar powder and wrapped in transparent cellophane.
Beside wine and “kuglof”, visitors of the Grape Ball in Sremski Karlovci could also get some “rakija” (a kind of brandy), “ajvar” (a kind of salad made of minced pepper), souvenirs, jewelry, and sellers bragged with great sales.
During these three days, from Friday till Sunday, people kept coming to the Grape Ball in Sremski Karlovci and many used this opportunity to visit cultural institutions with Baroque architecture, typical for most buildings in the town. Patriarchate, Catholic and Orthodox church side by side, the first Serbian gymnasium and the famous drinking fountain are all located in the very city center.
Girls from Serbia.com took a few sips from this fountain, since, who knows, the legend might come true and they would fall in love with a handsome local guy and once again return to Sremski Karlovci. The fountain reminded us of scenes from one of the most beautiful Serbian movies “Lajanje na zvezde” (Barking at the Stars) that were filmed right there.
We visited the oldest Serbian gymnasium and walked through the classrooms where numerous prominent Serbs had their lessons once. The first editions of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić’s books from the year of 1814 are kept in wooden bookshelves in the great library. These yellow pages of Serbian culture and literature should definitely be seen in person.
Then we saw figurines representing the heroes from the Battle of Kosovo at a table in the library. They were made by Russian students who are making an animated film about this significant historical event. We surely hope they will succeed, and can’t wait to see the film.
And while the cultural institutions were crowded with visitors, streets were felt even more alive with the sound of tamburitza. The program of the Grape Ball in Sremski Karlovci at the main stage started with kids performing a ballet. Little angels in white earned loud applauses, and the Cultural Artistic Association “Brankovo kolo” surprised the audience with folk rhythms and everyone who knew any steps started dancing.
But the sounds of swords and shields made by a group of Young explorers from Novi Sad and a few young foreigners who wanted to participate in this, for them, unusual manifestation, attracted the most attention of the Grape Ball in Sremski Karlovci audience. Dressed like ancient Romans, they performed a play about the Roman emperor Probus who planted the first grape vine on the mt. Fruška Gora wine route. A story of love between the great emperor and a slave girl from this land ended happily with actors dancing, this time joined by the audience.
Since this area is so famous for its wines, the Serbia.com team couldn’t possibly leave Grape Ball and the remarkable little town of Sremski Karlovci without having a glass of wine in some of the local wine cellars. We chose a winery that makes the wine we liked best, and arrived to a true little heaven – a household in Srem where we felt like the time had stopped sometime in those famous times gladly remembered by our elders.
We drank some Bermet, enjoyed the view on the Gymnasium of Sremski Karlovci, bought little rounded bottles of this desert wine as souvenirs, but there are great chances that only bottles will remain as souvenirs to remember us of this spectacular day, as, in confidence, we have already drunk the wine.
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