Montenegrin wine is

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented grapes. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different ...

made in the

Balkan The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

country of

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = ...

. Many Montenegrin vineyards are located in the southern and coastal regions of the country. Montenegrin wines are made from a wide range of

grape varieties This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see V ...

including Krstač,

Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebanon ...

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new ...

and

Vranac Vranac (), sr-Cyrl, Вранац; mk, Вранец, Vranec) is a red grape variety that originates from Montenegro. It is the most planted grape variety in Montenegro. It is believed to be closely related to Kratosija. Vranac is considered the ...

. Other indigenous cultivars include Bioka, Čubrica, Krstač, and Žižak.

History

Viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for '' vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of '' Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, r ...

in Montenegro dates back to the

Illyrians The Illyrians ( grc, Ἰλλυριοί, ''Illyrioi''; la, Illyrii) were a group of Indo-European-speaking peoples who inhabited the western Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. They constituted one of the three main Paleo-Balkan populations, a ...

; relics of wine-making and wine-trading have been found in the necropolis of the coastal city

Budva Budva ( cnr, Будва, or ) is a Montenegrin town on the Adriatic Sea. It has 19,218 inhabitants, and it is the centre of Budva Municipality. The coastal area around Budva, called the Budva riviera, is the center of Montenegrin tourism, kno ...

dating back to the 4th century BCE. Tombstones found in Montenegro were decorated with grapevines and wine motifs related to the Dionysian cult. Montenegro is considered the origin of the Kratošija (better known as Zinfandel) and Vranac grape varieties. The earliest reference to the Montenegrin variety Kratošija comes from the medieval statute of Budva, written in Italian, and dated 1426-1442 CE. Grape-growing and wine-producing regulations were introduced under the reign of Nicholas I of Montenegro. .

Production

In Montenegro, the Vranac and Kratošija varieties are primarily used for making red wines, whereas Krstač is the dominant variety for white wine. Kratošija was the predominant variety until the

phylloxera epidemic The Great French Wine Blight was a severe blight of the mid-19th century that destroyed many of the vineyards in France and laid waste to the wine industry. It was caused by an aphid that originated in North America and was carried across the A ...

. The most prevalent variety, Vranac, represents more than 70% of domestic wine production. The amount of land in vineyard cultivation has increased significantly throughout the Balkans since 2000, including in Montenegro. Grapes are grown on over with a gross production of 22,200 tons in 2017. Per

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

regulations, the Montenegrin wine-producing area is divided into four wine regions and fifteen sub-regions, the most important of which is around

Lake Skadar Lake Skadar ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Скадарско језеро, Skadarsko jezero, ; sq, Liqeni i Shkodrës, ) also called Lake Scutari, Lake Shkodër and Lake Shkodra lies on the border of Albania and Montenegro, and is the largest lake in Southern ...

. The other principal region is along the coastal area on the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to th ...

Trade

Counterfeit Montenegrin wine brands have circulated in Eastern Europe and the western Balkans; a group of researchers from Serbia, Finland, Montenegro, and the Netherlands have described a system using

smart labels Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...

to identify genuine bottles and screen out imposters. Shortly before the Montenegrin parliament ratified the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

accession treaty, Russia banned imports of Montenegrin wine from the state-owned wine producer Plantaže under claims of elevated levels of metalaxyl, pesticides, and particle plastics. Previously, one-fifth of the country's wine exports went to Russia.

References

External links

Wines of Montenegro
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