Bosnia and herzegovina

The state of Bosna i Hercegovina, formerly part of Yugoslavia, became independent in 1992. Organised viticulture began under Habsburg rule 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.

In 2012, the vineyards covered 6,000 hectares, from which 56,000 hectolitres of wine were produced. These are located on the coast and north of Dubrovnik (Croatia) mainly around the towns of Citluk, Caoljina, Stolac and Mostar. The dominant varieties in terms of volume are the two autochthonous ones Žilavka (white with 60%) and Blatina (red with 35%). The remaining varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon, Krkosija, 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 made without pressing from the free-run juice light red wine pressed without pressing. The classification of the wines is done by organoleptic evaluations with a 20-point system and analytical tests. In the three-tier system, wines with geographical origin must score at least 14 points, quality wines with geographical origin at least 16 points and top qualities at least 18 points.