Wine has been drunk here for 2200 years

Bosnia and Herzegovina inherits the culture of wine growing and producing from the Illyrian period, and the Thracians were the first ones to bring the grapevine seedlings to the Balkans. When talking about the history of wine growing in B&H, it’s important to mention that its borders occupied a much broader area than today. Namely, the Medieval Bosnia was once, without the later adjoined southern part (Hum), a distinguished wine-growing and producing country. In the Middle Ages, almost every aristocratic family had their own vineyards. This is clearly evident in the first detailed cadastral records dating from the 15th and 16th century. With the arrival of the Turks, and the islamization process of Bosnia, this type of production gradually extinguished, and finally perished. There are many reasons for the disappearance of the grapevine in Bosnia, the biggest one being the wars, because grapevine as a culture requires high degree of human engagement. At the present, the production of wine here is limited to the confluences of the rivers Neretva and Trebišnjica, corresponding to the Herzegovina wine-growing region with Mostar, Lištica, and Jablanica vineyards. Towards the end of the 19th century, with the first wine exports to the Western Europe, wine business becomes a significant source of income in Herzegovina, and this trend continues with market conquering all over the world. Wine business in Herzegovina has had its ups and downs, but it has never stopped being the main agricultural branch, and one could say, lifestyle of the local people. The Herzegovina wine producers want to be recognized for their Žilavka and Blatina as unique varieties in the world of wine, and to present themselves to the world through the wine that bears savour of the soil and the fervency of the Herzegovina sun.

If all those buried under the stone could resurrect, maybe with a strong light of daybreak they would recognize their unfulfilled hardworking dreams. (Zdravko Ostojić)