Planting for the Future on the Island of Wine

There is no doubt that Hvar wines are undergoing a renaissance, and Croatia's entry into Europe can only help that trend. The island's wines are now exported from California to China, from England to Singapore, and Hvar - which has a 2400 year-old wine history - is becoming known once more as the island of wine.

But the reality of today's vineyards is that they are a shadow of the former glories of the nineteenth century, in quantity at least. Prior to the phylloxera and devastating tax law by the Austro-Hungarians, the island had some 5700 hectares of vines under cultivation. Today that number is somewhere between 280 and 300 hectares, just 5% of the previous number.

Things are changing, and Bastijana is delighted to be involved in the planting of new vineyards, which include 14,000 organic plavac mali vines which were recently planted north of Hvar Town, near Vira. Not a bad view for the grapes to wake up to! To see the vineyard, simply follow the signs to Vira and the vineyard will eventually come into view.