The Winery Illyrian of Metohija

Discovering the wine region of Metohija

Kosovo is a region of south-eastern Europe, once an autonomous province within the former Yugoslavia. Until the outbreak of civil war, Kosovo had a substantial area of productive vineyards. Many were then abandoned, and the industry is still in the early stages of recovery. This is a disputed land, claimed as sovereign territory by Serbia but seen as independent by the ethnic Albanian majority who live there.

Kosovo was governed by the United Nations until 2008, when the government of Kosovo was formed. The effect of the conflict on the wine industry was amplified because Kosovo's pre-war exports were heavily focused on a single wine brand aimed at a single export market. Amselfelder ('blackbird fields'), a Sweet red wine made from Pinot Noir and Gamay, was a massive success in Germany. The Kosovan wine market was disproportionately dependent upon it.

Millions of cases of Amselfelder were shipped to Germany each year, and the brand was at its peak when war broke out. The logistics of wine production and export are nearly impossible in wartime, so for almost a decade those vineyards which remained undamaged were largely abandoned; the brand disappeared entirely. Its place in the German wine market was taken by several similarly styled wines from other regions. Amselkeller, a red from Valencia in Spain, was the most successful rival, appearing just 18 months after the start of the Kosovan war.