🍇 Vranac

Vranac is a red wine grape that the VIVC catalogue lists as Montenegrin. For Montenegro it is the key variety: a 2020 study in Scientific Reports calls it the most widely grown and most emblematic grape of the country, where vineyards cover about 2,800 ha.

Its origin was worked out from DNA. The parents are Duljenga and Kratošija, with Duljenga as the mother; both VIVC and an analysis of 419 samples from old Montenegrin vineyards support this. Kratošija is genetically identical to Zinfandel and Primitivo, so Vranac is their direct offspring, not the same variety.

Kratošija once dominated the country. After phylloxera, dead vines were often replaced with grafted Vranac because it gave very dark wines, and during the 20th century Vranac moved into first place. In the study it turned up 76 times; only Kratošija was found more often, 106 times. As early as 1909, the grapevine scholars Viala and Vermorel described it as a black-berried Montenegrin variety.

VIVC lists 20 other names, among them Vranec, Vranac crnogorski and Vranatz. Outside Montenegro the catalogue records, for example, 390 ha in Croatia (2008).

Why it matters to you. On a label the grape may be called Vranac or Vranec; it is the same vine. Do not confuse it with Zinfandel: they only share a family line. If the grape is named on a bottle of EU wine, it makes up at least 85 % of it. Red wines are served at 15–18 °C.