Balkan Wines: Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience


Food and Wine, Travel / Wednesday, September 11th, 2019

Of all the wine regions in the world, I never thought I would step foot in the Balkans. Heck, I didn’t even realize they had good wines there. What we discovered is that Balkan wines aren’t just good. They’re VERY good. We traveled and tasted our way through Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro, and we definitely had our eyes opened. For a more off-the-beaten-wine-path experience, look no further than the Balkans.

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Dinner views in Dubrovnik

Slovenian Wines

Our first experience with Balkan wines was during our stay in Ljubljana. Slovenian wines are plentiful and pretty inexpensive. We found that restaurants carried a deep selection, with just about all available by the glass.

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
The wine list at Robba

Orange wine was a completely new concept for us. I wrote more about this interesting wine in my Eat + Stay + Play: Ljubljana post, but basically it is a wine made with white grapes in a red wine producing style. There’s much more skin contact, resulting in this beautiful orange color you see.

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Orange wine at Vinoteka Movia
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
A Slovenian rosé spritzer we picked up at the local grocery store (and views from our Airbnb).

Croatian Wines (& Wine Tour)

As part of our Croatian sailing trip, we enjoyed a full wine tasting day at two wineries in the Peljesac Peninsula, an area located in the southern Dalmatian region of Croatia.

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Views of the peninsula

The first winery we visited was Matuško. Their logo displays a pair of donkeys, and a large concrete donkey greets you as you enter the tasting room. Until 1974, people could only go over the steep hills via donkey. 

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Sitting on him was encouraged 😉

It is at Matuško that we first tried Plavac Mali, the most common red grape varietal in Dalmatia. If you’re going to Croatia, you don’t want to miss wines made with the full bodied Plavac Mali grape. Many believe that the Zinfandel we know of today has its origins in Plavac Mali. As red wine fans, we loved Matuško’s Dingač wine. Locals actually call it black wine because it is so deeply red. It is known as the king of Croatian red wines.

Another interesting wine was Prosek. It is made from red or white dried grapes and produces a deep gold color. It is quite sweet but enjoyable even if you’re not a fan of sweet wines. Tradition holds that a bottle is produced the year a baby is born in the family and then it is aged until that baby grows up and gets married. Prosek is not protected by EU laws because it was felt that consumers might confuse Prosek with Italy’s Prosecco, an already EU protected wine, even though the two are entirely different in every way. The name is the only thing remotely similar.

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Our next stop was at Edivo where we experienced Navis Mysterium, meaning mystery of the sea. Here, Plavac and Dingač wines are aged for two years in complete darkness at the bottom of the Adriatic sea. They are bottled and placed inside amphorae with a double wax seal. In ancient Greek and Roman times, amphorae were used to transport fish, wine, and oil aboard ships. 

Edivo even offers diving trips to the sea floor (20 meters or over 65 feet down) where you can see the underwater cellar. The amphorae grow oysters, barnacles, and other sea life on them. We decided to remain on land, however. 😉

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Montenegrin Wines

(not much to report here, but a good experience nonetheless) 

Montenegro brought a couple of interesting wine experiences, both in the form of rosé. The first was a rosé from Montenegro called Plantaze Crnogorski. We did absolutely no research on Montenegrin wine and practically threw a dart at the board on this selection. But it ended up being perfect as a semi-dry compliment to our seaside views (I ordered fries with it, which I highly recommend any time you’re having wine).

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Enjoying the views in Montenegro

At lunch, we ordered another bottle of rosé and later realized it’s actually a pretty well known Macedonian wine. On a hot day, it did the trick. Very refreshing and helped us continue our rosé all day mood.

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog

Other Balkan Wine Experiences

Just like our trips to Italy, France, Spain and Chile, our trip to the Balkans was full of wine opportunities. Here’s a look at some of the other times we sipped and savored our surroundings…

Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Our sailboat skipper shared a bottle of his own wine with us.
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Bottle display in a wine shop in Rovinj, Croatia
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Outside seating at Piassa Granda da Miro wine bar in Rovinj, Croatia
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Cheers, Rovinj!
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Enjoying the sunset at the Monte Carlo Bar in Rovinj
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
A bottle of Malvazija on our Airbnb terrace in Rovinj
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
A pre-dinner drink at Konoba Fetivi in Split
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Wine tasting in Šipon
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Outside a wine shop in Šipon
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Sparkling rosé at Dubrovnik Restaurant, a Michelin Guide experience
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Enjoying more Malvazjia on the sailboat in Mjet
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Rosé on our Airbnb terrace in Split
Balkan Wines - Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience | Cathedrals & Cafes Blog
Another day, another wine bar in Rovinj 😉

Have you ever had a Balkan wine before? What’s your favorite wine region in the world? We were so pleasantly surprised by our experience in this region – now off to Total Wine to see if I can find these wines here!

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xo – Erin

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Balkan Wines: Our Off the Beaten Wine Path Experience appeared first on CathedralsandCafes.com. If you see this content published anywhere else, please email cathedralsandcafes@gmail.com.

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