The next stop in my Croatia series is a day we spent from Dubrovnik eating and drinking in the Peljesac Peninsula, Croatia’s wine growing region. We did this as a tour with Dubrovnik Food Story, a husband-wife owned team sharing their passion for local food and drink with visitors. We had a great day out and I’d recommend the tour to anyone who loves wine.
Hodilje
We were picked up from outside Old Town Dubrovnik, and driven to our first stop, Hodilje. Here we boarded a little boat and floated out to an oyster farm right there in the sea.
We sat aboard the boat as the owner then opened oysters straight out of the ocean and served them to us with a local wine. A few people chose not to eat the oysters, and I only ate 3 as I don’t love them. The wine was a family recipe and a nice start to a day of drinking.
Milos Winery
The next stop of the day was at Milos, the largest winery in the region. It has just been refurbished with a beautiful new tasting room overlooking the vineyards. We also got to do a tour of the cellars to see the barrels (some very old and some very new), and then sample 4 different wines – a rose, white and two reds.
Bartulovic Winery
From Milos, we drove deeper in to the Peljesac peninsula until we reached a tiny little hamlet. This is home to Bartulovic winery, and is where we also had a traditional lunch. For lunch we were served home made bread, delicious spicy lentil soup, a cheese and meats board, then some fresh linguine and finished off with a cherry cake. This as the best meal I had in Dubrovnik and was absolutely delicious. It was also paired with 4 more glasses of wine, with unlimited top ups. By this point, I was quite drunk.
Please note you can’t just turn up to this winery, and they only serve food for groups, organised in advance.
Ston
Our final stop of the day was the town of Ston, which is most famous for its incredibly city walls – much longer and higher than those of Dubrovnik. Again these were built for defensive purposes in the middle-ages, and are sometimes referred to as Europe’s version of the ‘Great Wall of China’.
Ston is also home to vast salt pans, with the area having the natural resource in abundance (and hence why the walls were built to protect them). Back in the day, salt was one of the most valuable commodities available and in fact many people were paid in salt; it’s the origin of the word sal-ary.
Ston is very pretty to walk around and I would have liked longer in the town. There is a bus direct from Dubrovnik bus terminal which takes 1hr 15 mins if you wanted to just see Ston instead of do this trip.
And that brought an end to our fun day in Croatia’s wine country. I slept very well that night!! I hope you enjoyed following along – stay safe and happy travelling.
Saasdia Travel Gid
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