October 7, 2025 – It is internationally known for its sun, beaches, glitz and nightlife, but how much do you know about Hvar, the island of wine?
When I first came to live on Hvar in 2003, I ordered a bottle of local red with my dinner, and the waiter brought a litre of something called Faros. It was foul, and I thought that if that was the quality of the local wine, I would stick to beer from now on.
And then, in 2010, when I decided to write the first modern guide book about my adopted island, I realised that I had made a serious error, for not only were the wines here excellent, but they were also unique. Indeed, the town were I had been living, Jelsa, was arguably the most important wine town in Dalmatia back in the 19th century.
And the more I delved into the topic for my research, the more I became amazed at the range of both quality but also uniqueness of the wines and their terroir. Before the devastating phylloxera in the 19th century, some 5,700 hectares of land were under cultivation. Today there are just 5% of those vineyards under cultivation, but what quality and diversity! Here are some of the things that I found while preparing for my book:
Hvar has a wine-making tradition dating back at least 2,500 years to the arrival of the Ancient Greeks. Indeed you can have a wine tasting in the UNESCO World Heritage Site that is the Stari Grad Plain, where cultivation practices have barely changed since the Greeks arrived all those years ago.
Jelsa is home to Croatia’s leading garage winemaker, Ivo Dubokovic, whose candlelit tastings of his range of 11 wines, as well as flavoured olive oils, in his atmospheric konoba.
The Zlatan Otok Grand Cru won many international awards and was regarded as arguably the best wine in Croatia at the time of my research.
Andro Tomic offers exquisite wine tastings in an imperious Romanesque cellar, modelled on Diocletian’s Palace, and his Prosek is rightly regarded as the best in the country.
PZ Svirce is a cooperative with over a century of tradition, and continuing quality. Its Ivan Dolac Barrique was the first certified organic Plavac Mali in Croatia and is a regular gold medal winner at Biofach Vinus Mundi in Germany.
Hvar is home to officially the oldest Plavac Mali vineyard in the world, near Dol, one of the few to survive the phylloxera attack.
Hvar is the place where the first-ever Master of Wine produced wine in Croatia, after the arrival of Jo Ahearne MW back in 2014. Her quality wines, made with ‘hands from London, grapes from Hvar’ were sold in top restaurants as far away as Tokyo and Sydney.
The Caric Ploski Plovac was once served at a 2-star Michelin restaurant in Amsterdam.
Hvar has an incredible 7 indigenous grape varieties, which only grow on the island, more than any other island in Croatia. The most famous among them is Bogdanusa, a white variety, which literally translates as ‘a gift from God.’ It is.
Hvar has some incredible tasting experiences, from the UNESCO site, Dubokovic konoba and Tomic Romanesque cellar, to an underwater tasting room at Zlatan Otok, and even in a cave which can only be accessed by speedboat. And of course, driving between vineyards on such a picturesque island only adds to the magic.
So how to get started on this amazing journey of wine discovery, and to learn about more luxurious tasting options, such as a speedboat tasting tour? The island’s leading hotel group, Suncani Hvar Hotels offer a range of wine tasting options to suit your needs. You can check them out here and contact them directly with your specific wishes.
