We boarded a ferry in Split, and two hours later were driving onto the island of Hvar at the small port town of Stari Grad. The pedestrian ferry has a direct route into Hvar Town, the main attraction. But we wanted our car as we were on a mission to find a local winery where we could taste a few wines and see more of the island.

We walked along the waterfront, enjoyed some coffee and continued our drive.

The steeply climbing hairpin turn main road heading east out of Jelsa would have been a pleasure on a motorcycle, but alas, we were in an Opel. Still it was scenic if also hair raising at times.

If what we saw previously were narrow, these roads were half that size. We drove up some gravel roads to spots where we had to back out, with no room to turn around.

Still we continued our search for vineyards and wine, and the perfect wine tasting experience. Several spots where we thought we saw signs of a tasting room turned out to be dead ends.

We were starting to worry we wouldn’t have a chance to taste some locally made wines, when we stumbled upon the Plančić winery. We passed by the nearly hidden road the first time, then turned around and saw the sign pointing down towards what looked like a garage. With no sign of life we thought we had made a mistake.

We walked around the building, through scattered equipment and tires, thinking for sure we had the wrong place. We were about to give up when we did find someone. Three men were wrestling with machinery inside the building, but directed us out to the picnic table.

Mario, as it turned out, gave us a quick tour of the fermentation vats and bottling area, then wiped off the outside table and sat us down. He bade us to wait maybe five or ten minutes and he would be back. It appeared that they were having some sort of issue with the bottling machine. They had finished the harvest the day before, having started it in August. We felt like we were intruding. But no, Mario was more than happy to open a few bottles with us and talk about his wine. He said it got him out of working on the bottling.

Mario returned with three bottles of his wine. He explained to us that they have 8 hectares of vines, and that each one is a microclimate. The soil, the slope, the amount of sun, each one determines how the wine will taste.

From the Hvar tourist board website (visithvar.hr):

Plančić Winery

Wine production in the Plančić family was founded in 1919 with the arrival of Plančić’s grandfather in Svirče. The winery started modern wine production in 1985. The concept of Plančić winemaking is based exclusively on the production of wines originating from autochthonous Hvar grape varieties.https://www.facebook.com/vinaplancic

After our positive reaction to the first three, Mario brought out a 2016 Grand Cru. This wine he said, should be enjoyed slowly, like whiskey, with a good movie and maybe a cigar.

What we found was a true wine tasting experience. There was no fancy tasting room with a million dollar view. We got something better, an introduction to the wine – and Croatian history – from the winemaker himself, and a lesson in family dynamics. When we first arrived we saw Mario’s brother deep in the every day tasks of winemaking, moving about with purpose. He did not speak to us, and we asked “Is that your brother?” Mario’s response was “Unfortunately yes.” We laughed, but later learned that the family relationship is as complex as the wine. And while they argue every day (per Mario), they are family, and always come together by the end of the day. His brother was happy to come out and greet us, but spoke no English, and we speak no Croatian.

When I told Mario that it was a dream of mine to have my own small vineyard, he did as almost all winemakers and vineyard owners have, he smiled (I think there may even have been some eye rolling), shook his head and said it was a lot of work.

We were sorry to leave our very personal introduction to Croatian culture and wine, but we still wanted to see Hvar Town and we did have a return ferry ticket for later that day.