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Day of young portugieser achieved an adult age
If he were a boy, he would be getting married or going to an army. As he is not, he is only an example of a fine and rare tradition. Tomcat’s Day of young portugieser took place for 18th time, on November 15th 2025. In Irig central’s Wine street, in the middle of Fruška gora mountain, wine, gastronomic and artistic “ambassadors” of Srem gathered together to welcome New wine year.
Portugieser, autochthonous variety from Fruška gora, used to be quite present in our vineyards while today it is unlikely to be found. The main motive of this event is to stop forgetting about this variety and our tradition. Also, welcoming young wine is a common practice in all countries with rich wine culture hence we wished to give the same opportunity to our fellow citizens.
Day of young portugieser
Tomislav Stanojčev, president of Assembly of municipality of Irig, and Sava Jojić, founder of Tomcat wine cellar, have officially opened 18th Tomcat’s Day of young portugieser.
The highlight of the evening was when newly proclaimed Knight of young wine, Miodrag Mića Jakšić, has opened the first barrel with young wine. By his side, Wine knights from Kragujevac, Paraćin, Vršac, Belgrade and Novi Sad, each representing different wine region, have all together cheered to this wine.
Director of Serbian library in Irig, Milica Uverić, has announced winners on the competition for the most beautiful poem about wine. The first place was won by Jasna Milenović from Sremska Kamenica for poem “Jesenji Jesenjin”. The second place won Razumenka Marković from Požega for poem “U drugoj koži” and the third place Dragan Veličković from Grdelica for poem “Uspavana hladovina”. An appraisal was awarded to Živka Nenadić from Užice for poem “Vino i on”. Three authors were awarded appraisal for participating to the competition, as they sent their poems from the different speaking area – Kostadinka Vitanova and Marija Čelebijeva from North Macedonia and Ani Stajkova – Ivanova from Bulgaria.
Besides our regular music band – Rumske lole, visitors had a chance to hear young musicians, students of the Elementary music school „Teodor Toša Andrejević“ from Ruma, traditional vineyard guardians – “pudars” and their fairy tales and jokes, and at the end, all-women music band La banda has warmed the atmosphere and only after the two bisos ended their performance
All the time, while performers took turns at the stage, visitors could enjoy in Wine and gastronomic street, where they could taste wine from Tomcat’s winery, sausages and cracklings from Prerade mesa JSJ Naić from Pećinci, cheeses of Friški jazački from Jazak, hote jams by Ljuta Sremica from Šid, pies, strudels and cakes of women from Aktiv žena Irig, Marije Krnjetin from Irig, and Dragica Zeković from Vrbas, spices of Household of Paulina Topolska from Bački Petrovac, fruit juices of Household Jojić from Irig, and ether oils and lavender products of Duke’s Apothecary from Sviloš.
Photographs from 18th Day of young portugieser can be found in our Gallery
This event was supported by:
- Opština Irig
- Pokrajinski Sekretarijat za poljoprivredu, vodoprivredu i šumarstvo
- Srpska čitaonica u Irigu
- JP Komunalac Irig
- Agencija za obezbeđenje lica i objekata „Kobran“ Irig
- radio i portal 021 Novi Sad
- Osnovna muzička škola „Teodor-Toša Andrejević“, Ruma
- OK radio, Beograd
