Travelling Croatia - Wine Tasting on the Peljesac Peninsula

Over the last few months I've been sharing the many wonderful places I visited during my adventure to Croatia. I've written about the sights and views in Split, and let's not forget What to Eat whilst .you're there, I've shared the paradise that is Plitvice Lakes and the absolute gem that was Dubrovnik and the charming Old Town. Most recently I shared a post on my island hopping and the beautiful islands I visited whilst sailing along the coast and this is the final place that I am yet to share with you.

We'd had some pretty bad weather over a few days and when we docked at our latest stop we couldn't wait to get off the boat onto steady land! We actually couldn't dock properly because the weather was so windy it took multiple attempts and we had to attach our yacht to another boat, to get off we had to leap off the side and hope for the best when landing!

The pictures below look idyllic but the water was moving and swirling around quite a lot, it was difficult to keep the boat steady and we were all feeling the effects.

We went straight to a local bar and picked up some Coca Cola to get some sugar and caffeine into us!

We knew that we were going on a tour of some vineyards and wineries so we were really looking forward to it once we'd got rid of our sea legs.

We jumped into the mini bus and we went on a quick tour of the coastline and saw the grapes growing right the way down to the sea. If you look in the image below the green trees are either growing olives for olive oil or grapes for wine and they take up the entire side against the sea for miles and miles.

You can also see the awful storm that had been following us the whole way along our trip! Hopefully we wouldn't see it again...







We arrived at Matusko Wines as our first stop. They were the biggest company in the area producing wine and had many visitors to the site for wine tasting and various other classes.

We joined another group and were taken through the various different types of wine they had to offer. There were a number of reds, a rose, some whites and also some schnapps. I didn't expect them to have schnapps but it's one of their most well known drinks so I participated fully...

It would have been rude not to indulge...right??

The wine tasting rooms were all underground where they store lots of the wine. These were bottled up but there were also plenty of casks everywhere labelled with dates and identifying names.

It was quite a calm place as the conditions are kept stable and as it's underground it was very quiet.

You can tell this company were one of the wealthiest and well known as their facilities were really impressive and well designed. There were many rooms for various events, and they've had many celebrities attend for wine tasting who require their own private rooms for privacy.

The place was like a labyrinth underground and I loved the way they had it lit up with chandeliers and sconces along the passageways. I think you could easily get lost if the additional doors weren't locked.

Would it be so bad??

They had beautifully designed cellars with the most expensive wines in and they agree to store expensive collections of rare wines for people in the perfect conditions.

I'm not a huge wine drinker as I seem to be intolerant to the preservatives in it. But when the wine is freshly produced locally it doesn't require the same level of preservatives as those who are mass producing it, so I took advantage!

I really enjoyed trying them all and actually found some red wines that I liked.

We moved onto the next place which was what appeared to be a pub type venue. We were taken to the basement level where there was a local selection of wine that they had produced. This place has a much more family run vibe and felt like you would get great service when choosing the wine they want.

Here we were also provided with some bread, cheese and meats so we didn't feel the effects too much!

The last place we visited was the newest and most modern. It had low lighting so my photos didn't turn out well but think a grey brick building, beautifully polished wood worktops and lots of glass doors. It was very modern and the interesting part was this one was run by a man who went to university to study wine. All other local companies are family run for generations.

They had a particularly well stocked variety of schnapps including cacao, myrtle and cinnamon. The cherry was amazing and I could have drunk it for hours!


After all of this we needed some proper food!

I've been mostly vegetarian the last year but I occasionally eat meat/fish when I'm out as I like to enjoy different cultures and foods. In Croatia there is a dish called Peka, where meat, potatoes and onion are cooked under a bell for hours at a time so I participated in this as it was a great opportunity.

The meat was really tender and the potatoes just melted in your mouth. It included beef and lamb which is a rare treat on the coast of Croatia as they mostly consume fish.


Have you been thinking about visiting Croatia? Will you be using my posts for inspiration?

I'd definitely recommend going, it's such a beautiful country! If you have any questions feel free to email or tweet for anything I haven't covered!


L xxx