📍 Stolac

Stolac is an old town in Herzegovina where growers make Žilavka and Blatina, and where a red wine once made a name for itself as Stolac red. Vineyards lie on slopes and on the Dubrava plateau, which Stolac shares with Čapljina. On that plateau the Žilavka harvest starts in the middle of September.

People wrote about Stolac wine as early as 1935. It was named one of three Herzegovinian wine types known in central Europe, next to Žilavka and Blatina. Medieval stećak tombstones were often decorated with vines and grape bunches, and one of the best decorated fields, Radimlja from the 14th century, stands beside Stolac.

Today the family winery Stolački podrumi works here, founded in 1948. It has its own plantations of 130 hectares and plants another 15 hectares of Žilavka and Blatina every year. Besides these it bottles the white Samotok and the red Dalmatino. In the 1950s larger new wineries went up in Ljubuški, Čitluk and Stolac, which is why Stolac counts among the six wine-growing municipalities of Herzegovina.

What sets Stolac apart from its neighbours is red: its red wine was once known in central Europe on a par with Žilavka and Blatina. Look also at Mostar, Čapljina and Ljubuški, and at Herzegovina for the whole region.