To people outside of Dalmatia, the town of Vrgorac may be less familiar, but to all southern residents of Croatia, Vrgorac evokes memories of top-quality prosciutto, strawberries, and wine. Often, we can briefly enjoy the view of this gem of Zagora as we travel on the highway towards Dubrovnik. Driving through the center, we pass beautiful houses and well-maintained roads that lead us to the industrial part of the town. Here, we see large, modern, and well-equipped facilities producing various products, a significant portion of which are, of course, related to the food industry for which Vrgorac has been known for centuries.

About the Host

Our path leads us to Pilač Winery, where we are greeted by the host, Ante Mihaljević, who, taking a break from a busy day in the vineyard, shows us his truly impressive winery. What catches our eye is the specific name of the winery. “My great-grandfather went to work in Rosario, Argentina, in 1926, where he worked as a bullfighter, literally sawing bulls in half. When he returned to Vrgorac, his profession became known as ‘Pilač,’ and that nickname stuck for our family and finally for the winery,” Ante tells us this interesting story.

The impressive wine fermenters welcoming us at the entrance have a truly imposing appearance and capacity. The reason for this is a truly positive wine story for the whole of Dalmatia, which our host, Ante, shares with us: “The Vrgorac field has over 4 million grapevines planted, along with significant quantities planted in the surrounding hills. People have large capacities, and we process raw materials from the Vrgorac field, while we also have our own, with even 4 hectares planted with plans for expansion.” Such data truly astonish us and are excellent evidence of the trend of this vineyard and agriculture in this area.

Namely, Vrgorac is an excellent example of maintaining agriculture in an area that is highly suitable for such activities, and Pilač Winery is a significant player in this process. As all winemakers know, maintaining vineyards is demanding work, but having the right professional capacities for wine processing and storage is a favorable circumstance. Access to this equipment can increase capacities even for small winemakers who know they have professional support with large capacities nearby.

Pilač Winery offers precisely that: the most modern and contemporary technology for wine storage and processing. The capacities for producing young wines in the form of stainless steel barrels are at the most advanced level, and it is truly impressive to enter this high-tech and well-maintained facility on the second floor, where most of the work related to wine production takes place. However, on the first floor, we have a real treat for all wine lovers: a large cellar full of various wooden barrels with numerous archived and award-winning wines. “Here, I actually have wines for pleasure and trying out new things. We do most of the work with young wines and direct sales, but every year, we set aside a certain part and store it here in the cellar for tastings and enjoyment,” Ante tells us.

Capacities

What catches our eye is the organization and size of the space, not only related to winemaking but also to other activities. “The building is designed to have not only its winemaking capacities but also hospitality-sports capacities, and we have a hospitality facility,” our host tells us. A suitable sport for wineries if you ask us at croatianwineries.com. “Everything related to winemaking is underground and protected by the hill, while the hospitality and other facilities are oriented towards the outside.

The current wine processing capacity is around 350,000 liters plus storage capacities. We produce and bottle more than 100,000 liters of our wine annually, while we offer the rest of the capacity as a service,” Ante tells us about the impressive capabilities of this winery. Several income sources in addition to enviable capacities are an excellent example of business diversification, and we remain pleasantly surprised by what we have discovered.

We inquire about equivalent capacities in Vrgorac with our host. “Currently, I have the largest capacities in terms of turnover and volume in Vrgorac itself, and there is a new winery opening next to me with a foreign investor that will likely also aim for larger capacities,” Ante replies.

We ask if he sees them as competition. “God willing, there will be 10 more like me in Vrgorac and another 10 larger ones! Our region has the potential for large yields and top quality, and it’s a shame not to capitalize on that,” Ante replies generously. This actually confirms the prevailing sentiment among our winemakers, that we are such an underutilized area in terms of capacity that our winemaking could be scaled up tenfold without anyone losing market share.

Wines

However, what interests us most is the iconic Vrgorac wine. One of the highlights of this winery is the famous Vrgorac Zlatarica. “There are two versions of Zlatarica, one is Blato Zlatarica, the so-called mother of Pošip, and the other is our autochthonous Vrgorac Zlatarica,” Ante explains the difference between these famous varieties to us. Although this is the same variety, the specificities of local climates give subtle differences, and we were impressed by the Vrgorac Zlatarica we tasted. “There are two clones of Zlatarica, ‘žutka’ and ‘zelenka.’ ‘Žutka’ gives slightly higher sugars, while ‘zelenka’ gives slightly better acidity, which gives us a nicely rounded wine,” our host describes in detail all the specificities and factors that go into producing our favorite beverage.

Pilač Winery itself labels and bottles Zlatarica, Rukatac, Pošip, and Pošip Surlee among white wines. From red wines, they produce and bottle Trnjak, Merlot, and Syrah. This wide range is not surprising given the size of the crop and the facility we visited. The passage between floors takes us through the laboratory and the central room where wines are tested and monitored. “This is the central point from which I manage the entire winery and have all-day control over all 350,000 liters in stainless steel barrels,” Ante describes to us.

However, what we notice with most of our good portion of wineries is the prevalence of white wine. “In the last 5 to 6 years, there has been a trend of drinking fresh white wines. According to some new market research, even beer sales are declining by 25-30%, while the sale of white wine is significantly increasing. Of course, this is also reflected in our business as we follow the desires of our customers with new plantations and capacity adjustments,” Ante explains this trend to us. However, we are glad to see that even the iconic Dalmatian red wines are not neglected in this new market trend.

As we bid farewell to our host, we do so with a positive impression of this aspect of Croatian and Vrgorac winemaking. Our host returns to the vineyard in his work attire, while we remain positively surprised by the capacities and modern equipment present here. We warmly recommend all travelers heading to Dubrovnik to take a short detour and visit Pilač Winery for top-quality wine and experience!