Visiting the Edivo winery on the Pelješac Peninsula in Croatia is an experience you won´t soon forget.
Croatia has rapidly become one of Europe´s best tourism destinations.
Just in 2017, Total Croatia News reported 18.5 million tourists visited the country in 2017 and generated 102 million overnight stays, producing over 8.7 billion euros in the first nine months of the year, surpassing then total revenue from foreign tourists during the whole 2016.
Now, adding to the beautiful coasts, lakes and architecture Croatia has to offer, there is a winery that requires a dive into the bottom of the Mali Ston Bay: the Edivo Vina winery in Drače.
Edi Bajurin and Anto Šegovic, founders of the winery, learned a way to store wine underwater in clay jugs, giving it a pinewood aroma and maintaining the taste and quality of the beverage.
Soon, this project peaked and became a more-then-popular tourist destination for people across the world.
The idea to create a unique souvenir from the depths of the Adriatic Sea started in 2011, when the two founders engaged in viticulture in Janjina along with Ivo Šegovic.
Process of the beverage
Production starts above ground. Then, grapes are harvested from the vines around Drače and aged for three months on land where they are carefully watched by winery employees.
Then, these are transferred to specially made amphorae –clay jugs, based on vessels used in Ancient Greece– which are placed inside padlocked cages covered in two layers of rubber and lowered into the Adriatic Sea to a depth of 20 metres, where they stay for up to two years, as underwater conditions provide the perfect environment and temperature for the beverage.
Every 10 days, divers monitor that no seawater penetrates the wine.
Afterwards, the product emerges covered in shells, barnacles and other sea life, which makes it look like a literal buried sea treasure. And it really is!
A completely new wine experience
The first amphorae was dropped in the sea in 2013, and since then, production has been perfected.
Today, tourists get to see first-hand the whole process of wine amphorae in a space that exudes traditional details characteristic of the peninsula, witnessing how every bottle is prepared with love, passion and patience resulting in a wine with perfect thermal conditions, aroma, quality and color.
So, anyone up for visit to the Croatian Peninsula?
Visit here the official site of the winery.
