Meet the household winemakers of Croatia’s ‘little Tuscany’ in Zagorje

For half-hour within the cellar of wine-hotel Vuglec Breg, Jasminka Šaško is the consummate skilled. She gushes over fermentation instances and benefits of the champagne methodology of glowing manufacturing as she reveals me round her workplace, a century-old cellar of crimson bricks and outdated wooden, its partitions stacked with dusty bottles, its air a fug of fermentation. Then she slips into lyricism. “Wine is art that changes,” she says. “Grapes are alive and wine is alive, so wine for me is a living art.” It appears Zagorje brings out the romantic in everybody.

An hour north of Zagreb, Zagorje’s title interprets both as ‘back-hills’ or ‘behind the mountain’ — however that hardly does it justice. Though sights are few, to go to is to enter a dwelling fairytale. White castles crown hummocky hills. Farming villages slumber in woodland. And amongst all of it is certainly one of Croatia’s most distinctive wine scenes.

Jasminka says, “People used to label Zagorje as farmers’ wine because grapes were a little sour. With climate change, grapes are sweeter and those same areas are the best. Quality in the past 20 years is totally different.” She arms me a glass of graševina white wine — it’s citrussy and mineral, with the freshness of inexperienced apples. Remember 2025, she advises. The classic will likely be a cracker.

Compared to Dalmatia and Istria, cool-climate Zagorje is an oenological backwater. Vuglec Breg produces simply 70,000 bottles yearly; you’ve acquired to go to if you wish to attempt it. Yet native cultivation has deep roots. DNA evaluation of a close-by winery revealed the area’s grape, gouais blanc, to be the supply of European classics reminiscent of chardonnay and riesling. Zagorje households mark the turning seasons by the tiny vineyards that almost all personal. At every is a klet, a winery cabin to retailer instruments and luxuriate in barbecues — or maybe simply watch sundown gild the hills whereas nursing a glass.

Vuglec Breg lodge is right for that. It’s been created from the hilltop hamlet the place proprietor Boris Vuglec, now in his fifties, grew up. Buying land because the few neighbours bought, he’s established a retreat filled with rustic soul. Rebuilt cottages have gingham curtains and apple-green shutters. Grandma Roza’s rooster home has been revamped to host cooking courses and the cow barn is now a restaurant the place regional delicacies is refined to Bib Gourmand high quality.

And, in fact, there are wines. The morning after I arrive, Boris reveals me a number of the 30 acres he planted on the steep slopes in entrance of the lodge in 2005; varieties like chardonnay, Rhein riesling, sauvignon, muscat, pinot noir and that graševina, a Croatian speciality. Unlike the manicured acres of France or the US, these are half-acre plots jigsawed between woodland — a sq. of vines right here, a triangle there. The lodge swimming pool is surrounded by vines and a tethered donkey grazes at their edge. Beyond the lodge, a inexperienced valley threads by a carpet of copper and bronze leaves. There’s no sound however birdsong. “Zagorje is very different from other parts of Croatia. It’s pure nature. The peace gets into your heart,” says Boris.

Inspired, I’m going for a drive in the direction of Veliki Tabor Castle. Lanes are like doodles by quiet, minding-their-own-business hills. In villages, white geese waddle throughout farmyards and corn cobs dry outdoors sagging barns. There’s a storybook high quality to the place: folksy, homespun. The Fifteenth-century citadel is a cluster of stocky white towers and ramparts, initially constructed to repel japanese invasions. But higher nonetheless is the view of hills and woods, farmhouses and hilltop church buildings.

“It’s our little Tuscany,” winemaker Igor Horvat says at Petrač Winery. Having prearranged a go to to the winery a mile from Vuglec Breg, I sit as Igor tells me the winery has grown from two acres to 25 in 20 years, making it one of many largest in Zagorje. Beyond our desk, vines spill down steep slopes like gold waterfalls.

So why isn’t Zagorje higher recognized? Because land was valuable to poor farmers, Igor explains. Families historically divided estates between siblings slightly than promote, making plots too small for industrial winemaking. That’s why it has simply 15 skilled vineyards. He tells me Petrač was the primary to introduce bordeaux reds. “The Ministry of the Interior said it was too cold for cabernet sauvignon, but if you can grow it in Austria, why not here?” He pops a bottle of Enigma, an award-winning mix of cabernet sauvignon with cabernet franc and merlot, then sniffs together with his eyes closed. “Truffles!” he says. For me, it’s a sublime stew of plums, crimson cherries and ripe tannins. The grand crus of France are unlikely to be apprehensive. But if surroundings and allure issue into your appreciation of wine, Zagorje is a winner.