Hi everyone - planning to spend a week in Croatia, would love advice on 2 things:
1 - best places for wine list - doesn’t have to be local
2 - best local wines
Appreciate any feedback and thoughts!
Hi Jon,
To be helpful with the reply - Where in Croatia do you plan to spend your one week?
That will influence the replies and as a general for point one I would say Zagreb is probably the area to find places with good wine lists. Perhaps also applies for the second question in terms of availability.
Most Croatian wines are produced in relatively micro quantities (except for the “large” volume producers which in most cases, are not what WBs would be looking for), and often available in Zagreb as mentioned, while locally - usually the nearby produced rules.
Ps. Maybe a post for the travel section rather than here?
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The best (and only !) Croatian wine I’ve had is Grk by Bire. Grk is an indigenous grape that grows on the islands off the Dalmatian coast. It’s a serious white, similar to a Riesling/ Viognier cross.
Vinas Mora makes great wine!
Check out this thread from a couple years ago… Croatia: wines of Dalmatia...
If you are in Korcula, definitely have a meal at LD and definitely try the Krajancic Posip Melaina/Statut - I believe LD is the only place that gets this wine. Was there last month. Similarly, if you are near Sibenik, dine at Pelegrini and do their pairings. They have some really cool exclusive wines (at least they did 2 years ago). And reserve a meal (and tasting) at Bibich in the hills outside Split.
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Thank you! I’ll be in Split, Hvar and Dbrovnik during the trip.
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Fantastic. Thank you!
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Thank you!
Thank you! I’ll be in Split, Hvar and Dbrovnik during my trip
There are a couple wine bars in the old town portion of Split. Zinfandel seemed to have the best selection of local wines and a knowledgeable staff.
Also it can be hit or miss I’m told, but I had one of the best seafood dinners in my life at Nostromo in Split. It was in December so very few tourists. Had an excellent Posip with my dinner.
Dubrovnik also has an interesting wine bar/shop in the old town called D’Vino. The staff was very knowledgeable. They are really proud of Mike Grgich and have many of his Croatian wines.
They had a wide selection of Dingac and Plavic Mali, plus the usual whites.
It is spendy, but Restaurant 360 is worth it in my opinion.
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If you have a car during you holiday and assuming you don’t mind going to visit a few wineries then I would suggest a day trip or two. This could be combined with other touristic activities of course.
Quite nearby Dubrovnik you have the peninsula called Peljesac, and there you have a town called Ston - one of the longest fortifications in the world and entering Mali Ston you have terrific oysters (and mussels), one simple easy place serving the fresh off the sea is a small stall as you enter the town.
Not too far away you have once of the greatest Plavac mail wines and winemakers. For me Miloš is a must (the most consistent high quality wineries in Croatia) and if you don’t mind driving further to Orebic then stop by Kiridzija (make an appointment or risk missing out as J. Malkovich found out the hard way). He’s one of the best and most consistent Dingac producers (also a plavac wine). There are beaches along the way there by the way. There’s a short ferry between Orebic and Korcula and head to Lumbarda nearby. As some have noted Grk wine is great - here you have all the small producers selling them from the cellars. While Bire makes good wines I have preferred two cellars right next to each other - Popic and Vitis Winery. Here you have some of the nicest and sandy beaches in Croatia. It’s a great island for food and for quite good wine and fresh things from the sea restaurant Zure (the wines are were not on the level of the other three mentioned when I have been there).
In Hvar I would consider Caric, they have quite good plavac wines (wouldn’t but them in the top class but good!) and some white wines. If the few wines I have tried then Ahearne’s have been good there as well.
When in Split then you could try the wines from Vuina, in addition to Plavac they also make a quite interesting and relatively low alcohol red from an obscure variety called babica.
For other good wineries (except Miloš, Kiridzija and the Grk producers) that I have among the top producers then I would add a couple of Istrian producers like Clai’s (natural in the best sense) and Coronica’s top bottlings. In some of the premium restaurants you might also be able to find Tomac (I like the amber wines there more than the regular bottlings and their sparkling wines are quite nice). There are of course many other wineries making good wine but many are more vintage sensitive.
I know this might sound odd and is unsolicited, but I would personally not specifically look for places with “great” wine lists. Why? Outside of Zagreb (perhaps a few places around in Istria) it’s usually not that great value and only very ambitious places that has any sort of good Croatian wine list. Note: Rarely are foreign wines well or decently represented.
I would instead strongly recommend to venture out to a few places, more rustic and authentic in that they do farm to table (the norm and not a recent catch phrase thing here) outside of towns normal and definitely visit a proper Peka (a specific way of cooking with fire) lunch/dinner. You will need to order it the day before (takes hours to prepare) but you will not regret it! Octopus is terrific and I never had it more tender anywhere else in the world. Not too far away from Split you have Primorsten, a small pretty town and also kind of part of the area and home of the famous Babic variety, there’s a peka place called Šarićevi dvori nearby. Even if you don’t go there… that’s the type of place to look for! It’s not too bad of a detour from Krka the beautiful waterfall and nature park well worth a visit.
Everything from the sea and caught in the Adriatic Sea will be great, try to find restaurants which is a family operation (someone fishing the others working in the restaurant), like Zure in Lumbarda. The destinations/locations and places with high turnover are quite unlikely to be those…
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Drank GRK by Bire a lot in Croatia - amazing recommendation! Thank you all - perfect wine with fresh seafood
This is an awesome reference- thank you so much. Looking into adding a stop at Šarićevi dvori on our ride up to Istria. Could you share more about the peka? Possible to do if we’re not staying nearby, would I need to call ahead etc?
Also looking to stop by krajancic based on your post in another thread, will bring a 6 pack with me on your behalf 
Hope you make it there! When are you there and from where are you driving?
Sure - you need to call and order a day in advance. They start preparing the food probably more than 4 hours in advance. No need to stay nearby…
Managed to find a pic from maybe 6-5 years ago from there, and it gives a bit of an idea of what it looks like in preparation and on the table. With 2 couples there was no way were able to finish it all.
Just got back from 10 days in Dubrovnic and Budva Montenegro. So nice being able to try new wines at very favorable price points. To the point we had something new with almost every lunch and dinner. Too much for me to comprehend on our trip , but the experience was fun. Had no background on the offerings, so ordering was basiclly rolling the dice. Informational only - attaching some sample winelists.
Last time in Croatia (5 years ago) went to the island Korcula from Hvar for a day trip had GRK by Bire which I agree was nice (only reason I remember was wife snapped a pic of the bottle).
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Agree the GRK by Bire was consistently good. Enjoyed that a half dozen times the week I was in Croatia. Paired perfectly with local seafood too.
This is a great thread, thanks.
I just got back from 12 days in Croatia (late July to early Aug). Started in Dubrovnik, hopped on a yacht and sailed north along the coast. Went to Korcula, Vis, Hvar, Broc,and ended in Split for several days.
LOVED the country, the islands, the people, the food and the wines.
We will be back, for sure. We would love to spend some time in the Istria region, and perhaps over to Zagreb. Such a great country at an overall price point lower than its neighbors to the south and West…
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Zagreb and inland is lovely. If you are outdoor/hiker you are in for a terrific treat (wild and unspoiled mountains, rivers and waterfalls). You’ll also find out what the prices on the coast used to look like years ago in the off season. I can make a few suggestions if you decide to go for some of the things.
In case you go to the Zagreb area then I would really suggest going to the Zagorje region for a night or two.
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Add me to the camp of those who had fun visiting Croatia.
The coasts of Croatia were such fun and beautiful day stops when going by water and, of course, both Dubrovnik and Split were cool cities as our bases at almost 2 years ago. Can’t wait to go back and will look to include more serious wine-food events.
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