August the 19th, 2025 – Young wine makers from the gorgeous island of Vis have been returning from being educated abroad to continue their family tradition on their native island.
As Morski writes, after gaining knowledge abroad, young wine makers have been returning to their native island of Vis and continue their long and impressive family tradition. Two brothers, Antonio and Frane Ivčević from Komiža, have been in love with their vines since their earliest childhood. Vugava, Rukatac, Palagružona, Plavac and Tribidrag are topics they have a wealth of knowledge about. In return, those species provide them with up to 4,000 bottles of amazing local wine every year.
“We always admired our father. He worked hard in the fields and that inspired us to continue with it. We are still in his vineyard that he planted in 1999, before I was even born. This is our old Vugava plantation and we’re very proud of it,” Frane Ivčević told Plodovi zemlje.
Antonio Ivčević, the older of the two brothers, is a graduate agricultural engineer. From a young age, he knew what he wanted and was determined to continue the work of his father, who saved the indigenous Vis Palagružona from extinction. Antonio was a scholarship holder of the famous winemaker Miljenko Grgić in California’s Napa Valley.
“He gives the best final year students of wine making and viticulture a scholarship and the opportunity to work for him for three months. During that time, they get to learn from his employees and see what it’s like in the new world of viticulture and wine making,” explained the diligent Antonio.
That year, two of the three Grgić scholarship holders were from Vis. The other Vis resident was Jure Atlija, who also decided to return home to the island after college was over.
“I inherited two hectares of vineyards. They were old vineyards, there was no plantation, so there was a lot of manual labour. Over time, we removed some of those vineyards, planted new ones, plantations, and rented some vineyards from people who could no longer cultivate them,” said Jure Atlija.
In the last three years, the Ivčević brothers have not only become wine makers returning home to Vis to continue the tradition. They have also planted thousands of vines, opened a wine shop and combined wine making with tourism. Their father Ante is naturally beaming with pride.
“There’s no better feeling. You do something your whole life and then leave it to your children who have the knowledge and want to continue. That’s just fantastic. Now they just need to continue what we started here, and that’s preserving indigenous varieties,” he said.
Frane pointed out that Vugava is their most important native Vis variety, but they also plant Rukatac and Palagružona. They want to increase the number of Palagružona plantations, they currently only have one.
