Croatia

The wine association says archaeological sites and records show Greeks, Illyrian tribes and Romans spreading vine growing in what is now Croatia. In Slavonia, viticulture was neglected under Ottoman occupation (1527–1687); afterwards the Viennese court gave large estates to nobles, including Vukovar to Count Elz, Ilok to the Odescalchi and lands in Baranja to Eugene of Savoy, and they and the Đakovo diocese organised wine production. Phylloxera at the end of the 19th century brought mainly German varieties such as Welschriesling into Slavonia. In Dalmatia the association calls the phylloxera years (1894–1918) and the "wine clause" allowing cheap Italian imports the hardest period, causing large emigration. In Istria, the Institute of Agriculture in Poreč began work in 1875. Large state estates and modern cellars followed between 1960 and 1990, and the war of 1991–1995 damaged vineyards in Baranja and the Danube area. The EU protected 16 Croatian PDOs on 1 July 2013.

The association describes a compact country running from sunny Dalmatia through Istria and Kvarner to the hills of the Croatian Uplands, between the Alps and the Dinaric Alps, and across the Slavonian mountains to the banks of the Danube. The Uplands hold 20% of the vineyards, at 120–400 m; Zagorje is the coldest subregion. For Hrvatska Istra, the single document gives 907 mm of rain a year (421 mm in the growing season) and mean temperatures of 13.9 °C a year and 19.5 °C in the growing season, with mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers. Most vineyards are in the Mediterranean west and south, and the centre and north-east are sub-Mediterranean with some continental influence; bora, jugo and maestral winds play a part in late harvests. Soils are not described in the sources read, apart from the acidic sand of the island of Susak, where phylloxera did not take hold, and the rocky ground on which Babić does best.

The Hrvatska Istra single document says marked day-night temperature differences keep acidity, varietal aromas and colour, giving fresh, medium-alcohol wines but also fuller, more extracted ones for ageing. It describes Malvazija Istarska and the muscats as strongly aromatic, and Teran as ruby red with violet tones, sour-cherry and dark-fruit aromas, fairly high acidity and a touch of astringency. Warm autumns and winds allow late harvests of dried grapes for dessert wines. The association says Zagorje wines always show high acidity, which is why sweet wines are gaining there, and that Babić gives average wines on fertile ground but top results on sparse rocky land.

All Croatian wine names in the EU register are PDOs. Sixteen were protected on 1 July 2013: Hrvatsko Podunavlje, Slavonija, Istočna kontinentalna Hrvatska, Moslavina, Prigorje-Bilogora, Plešivica, Pokuplje, Zagorje–Međimurje and Zapadna kontinentalna Hrvatska inland, and Hrvatska Istra, Hrvatsko primorje, Primorska Hrvatska, Sjeverna Dalmacija, Srednja i Južna Dalmacija, Dalmatinska zagora and Dingač on the coast. Ponikve and Muškat momjanski followed in 2015. Wines are labelled kvalitetno or vrhunsko vino s KZP. Graševina is the most widely grown variety; inland the association names Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Traminer, Grüner Silvaner, Sauvignon and native Škrlet, Kleščec and Kraljevina, with Pinot Noir, Blaufränkisch, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon for reds. Istria has Malvazija, Teran, Borgonja, Muškat Ruža and Muškat Momjanski; the islands and coast have Žlahtina, Maraština, Pošip, Grk, Babić, Plavina and Plavac Mali, whose parents are Crljenak Kaštelanski (identical to Zinfandel) and Dobričić.