Located in Croatia’s far east is Vukovar-Srijem County, where the Slavonian plains meet the syrmania hills. Here you’ll find seven rivers, Oak forests, and some of continental Croatia’s best food and wine.
While this county is quite large, when it comes to wine, there is one major wine region, Ilok and its one of Croatia’s best.
Ilok is Croatia’s easternmost town and is surrounded by the mighty Danube river and the gentle slopes of Fruška Gora. Wine has been produced in Ilok for just under 2000 years, and these days some of Croatia’s best wines come from this region, the most famous being Ilok Traminer, which for centuries was drunk by nobles across Europe.
In addition to Traminer, the other dominant varieties being produced include Graševina, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinto Blanc, and Frankovka.
Interestingly, Fruška Gora is where you’ll find all the vineyards in Ilok and these gentle hills have been planted with grape vines since Roman Times, which demonstrates that these fertile hills have long been known to produce excellent wines.
Fast forward 1700 years and the Odescalchi Dukes modernised wine production in Ilok, planted new varieties of grapes, built a cellar underneath their castle and, started bottling their wine. The best part is that today you can visit those cellars and learn a little about the history of wine production in Ilok as well as sample some of the exquisite wines.
If you are wanting to do some wine tasting Ilok has a great set up with most of the wineries concentrated around the town itself making it easy to get around and visit as many or as few as you like. If you’d like to take a walking tour of the wineries of Ilok you should start with the Old
If you’d like to take a walking tour of the wineries of Ilok you should start with the Old Ilok Cellars at the Odescalchi Castle, where you can take a tour of the winery, including that fantastic cellar, and finish with some wine tasting.Be sure to try some of their premium Traminer as it is excellent. This is by far the biggest wine producer in Ilok and Croatia. They have done an outstanding job in restoring the historical buildings and building an excellent winery.
From here you can either head to the upper or lower town and take your pick from some other wineries like Buhač, Ivan Knezovič, Dragun, Dolić-Kraljević, Stipetić, Čobanković, Krešić, and many others.
While making your way around the cellars make sure you try the varieties the Ilok region is so famous for. That way you’ll get a better understanding of why this wine region has flourished for all these centuries. Go for Traminer, Graševina, Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Frankovka.
It is also possible to get out and explore the Fruška Gora vineyards on an organised tour of Principovac and Belvedere. This is an excellent way to explore the Ilok wine country, which is absolutely beautiful, and you’ll learn a little about viticulture.
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