Teran is an old Istrian variety which a hundred years ago was a main Istrian variety. Through that time was often equalized with Refošk. After many observations and research of many authors, it’s been established that within this variety there are different clones which are morphological, ecophysiological and economical differ from each other. That’s how Vivoda (1996) establishes two varieties of Teran: red stem Teran and green stem Teran. One of the main morphologic differences between Teran and Refošk, he says, is hairiness of the back of the leaf, while Refošk leaf is smooth.Tips of scions are light green, very ragged and the edges of the young leaves are redish. The flower is bisexual. Grown leaf is roundish or long, middle part is wide, has three or five parts, stem sinus has an open V shape, a top side is clearly green, in Autumn purple-brown, along the ribs green ,a downside is whitish and wooly.
Cluser is mid size or big, dense or loose, garnet: cluser stem is meddium long, strong, wooden to the knee, typicaly green, like the whole stem. Ripe berries are mid size, black-purple, eggshaped. Skin is very resilient, meat is bursty, under the skin redish, juice sourish, without a special taste. Fruitfulness is abundant, good disease resistance. Red petiole Teran, which is best represented in Istria, accumulates average 16% of sugar and over 10g/L of total acids. Exceptionaly high or higher content of total acids is one of the main technologic characteristics. Ripens late (IV cycle) and if the weather during September is nice, gives high quality (over 19% of sugar).
Teran wine has characteristic red colour, when stired in a glass gets a purple tone. Aroma is delicate, expressed and recognizable with typical fruity, raspberry scented dominating character. Relatively high content of total acids and a certain hue of acerbity, integrated into the high extract, which is often excceding 25 all the way to 30g/L, gives this wine characteristic taste of full, strong, robust and yet pleasantly matched wine. Due to that especial fullness and a large quantity of polyphenols (tannins, anthocyans) is considered as therapeutic wine.
Due to it’s characteristics is very nicely mached with pršut (prosciutto ham), chese and with meat and game dishes. At the temperature of 18 C it’s characteristics are best expressed.
The story of Teran is very old at dates far back. In the available literature Teran was first mentioned six hundred years ago. Authors Marescalchi and Dalmass wrote how Teran was given to emperor’s ambassadors in 1390. They were presented with 20 „Ingastaris” (ceramic bottles). In 1408 Teran was presented to Venitian ambassador and in 1411 Austrian ambassador.In Istria, the first author that described Teran was Stanković in 1825 in „Il terrano di Barbana”. Hugues in 1889 described Teran from Istria and wrote about two Teran wines: Teran from Kringa and teran from Kanfanar. The same author expressed concern about the bad review given by the experts committee at the fair in Bolzano in 1886. Istrian teran wines were described as too sour, very sharp, with low alcohol content and jarring. In order to further examine the quality of Istrian wines (Teran), a year later (1887) the best 30 samples were sent to Bordeaux to be evaluated. The results were again quite bad and similar to the ones from Bolzano: Bad smell, overly bitter, raw, badly coloured, sharp. Those results initiated and sped up research and planting the experimental vines in Pazin and Poreč. The result of all that was that in 1902 Istrian wines were evaluated as very good at the international fair in Turin and were sorted among the wines of highest quality, right behind French and Spanish ones (Despot, 1976).
