Bosnia and Herzegovina

The state of Bosna i Hercegovina, formerly part of Yugoslavia, became independent in 1992. Organised viticulture began under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy of Austria-Hungary towards the end of the 19th century. In 1886, the wine and fruit growing office was founded in Gnojnice. The wines were very popular at the Viennese court, which is why these vineyards are still called "imperial vineyards" today. A temperate continental climate prevails with hot summers and dry cold winters. The vineyards cover 6,000 hectares of vines, from which about 50,000 hectolitres of wine are produced. The vineyards are located on the coast and north of Dubrovnik in Croatia mainly around the towns of Citluk, Caoljina, Stolac and Mostar. The dominant grape varieties in terms of volume are the two autochthonous Žilavka (white) and Blatina (red). Other important red wine varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon, Krkošija, Plavac Mali and Syrah.

The most famous area is Mostar (Engl. Old Bridge), which used to be the Islamic wine centre of Herzegovina. However, it was almost completely destroyed in the civil war of the 1990s. The most important wineries and producers are Hercegovina Vino, Podrum Andrija, Stolac, Vinarija Ljubuski and Vinarija Zadro. A well-known wine is "Kameno Vino", which comes from an artificially irrigated vineyard in the desert-like Neretwa Valley. The speciality "Samotok" is a light red wine pressed without pressing from the free-run must. The classification of the wines is done by sensory evaluations with a 20-point system and analytical tests. In the three-tier system, wines of geographical origin must score at least 14 points, quality wines of geographical origin at least 16 points and top quality wines at least 18 points.

Map: By Chubby - Собствена творба, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Imperial Mosque Sarajevo: By Julian Nyča - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link