Top 100 red wines of Montenegro
Discover the top 100 best red wines of Montenegro as well as the best winemakers in the region. Explore the varietals of the red wines that are popular of Montenegro and the best vintages to taste in this region.
Discovering the wine region of Montenegro
Montenegro is a small country located in the western Balkan Peninsula, with a coastline on the Adriatic Sea. Formerly Part of communist and then federal Yugoslavia, it was part of a union with Serbia from 2003 to 2006.
The wine industry is best known for its intense, deeply coloured red wine, produced from the Vranac Grape. There are also a number of grape brandy distilleries.
Well-made Vranac is at its best after several years in the bottle, and with judicious use of oak, Montenegrin Vranac can rival the Powerful wines of southern France. It can also exhibit a fresh acid Balance rarely seen across the water in Puglia - a trait conferred by the cooler altitudes at which vines can be grown in Montenegro.
Other red varieties grown here include red Bordeaux grapes, Syrah, Sangiovese and Kratosija. The latter is a synonym for Tribidrag, of which Crljenak Kasteljanski, Primitivo and Zinfandel are clonal variants.
Today, it plays only a minor role.
Various international white grapes are grown (Chardonnay is sometimes called Sardone here), as well as the Balkan specialty, Smederevka.
A typical southern European country, the Montenegrin landscape is relatively Dry, mountainous and definitely Mediterranean. The culture of viticulture and winemaking has been established here for a Long time.
Discover the grape variety: Zinfandel
From Croatia where it is called crljenak kastelanski or pribidrag. According to genetic analyses carried out by Professor Carole Meredith of California University in Davis (United States), it is related to the Croatian plavac mali and Zinfandel. It is also found in South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, Brazil, Germany, Bulgaria, Albania, Italy under the name of Primitivo, Malta, Greece, Portugal and to some extent in Croatia. In the United States (California), it is one of the most widely planted grape varieties, having been introduced in the 1830s well before Primitivo. In France, it is registered in the official catalogue of vine varieties on the A1 list under the name Primitivo.
Food and wine pairing with a red wine of Montenegro
red wines from the region of Montenegro go well with generally quite well with dishes of beef, lamb or game (deer, venison) such as recipes of meat and goat pie, lamb fillet with monbazillac or my mother's rabbit.
