KOMARNA Sightseeing
View from mountains
Peljesac
Peninsular. Sightseeing and wine information
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Seiten für Apartment TedoA Trip to Peljesac
The Peninsular lies between the Neretva and Mali Ston Channels to the northeast and the Peljesac and Mljet Channels to the southwest. It is a mountainous region with the highest point at 961m. Most of the Peninsular belonged to the Republic of Dubrovnik from the 1400's until 1808 while the western part belonged to The Republic of Venice.
There is basically just one road going east to
west. The Peninsular can
easily be visited in a day trip especially if you take advantage of the
ferry from Ploce to Trpanj.
Ferry from Ploce to Peljesac
The ferry leaves Trpanj at 06:45, 12:00 (not Sunday) and 16:30 - and it leaves Ploce at 09:30, 14:15 (not Sunday) and 18:30. The trip take about an hour and the ticket price is about 150 Kuna for car and passengers (2006). During July and August there can be many cars waiting and you must be at the ferry 1-2 hours before it leaves.
Some of the best Croatian wine comes from Peljesac and there are opportunities for wine and mussel tasting in many places on the peninsular.
The road from Ston to Orebic
If you start out going east to west, the first "must-see" places you arrive at is Ston and Mali Ston. Both are fortified towns build in the beginning of 1300's by the Republic of Dubrovnik. The length of the wall is about 5 km, and about twenty bastions have been preserved. It was build to protect the salt production in the valley. There is more information about them in "Dubrovnik trip" page
Going west from Ston you will soon see the wine fields where
the typical
low-stemmed vines are grown in the traditional fashion. There are
offers
of wine tasting and sales in many places, but I suggest that you
continue
west until you reach the settlement of Potomje which is at the edge of
the wine growing area that are protected by the government and where
only
the indigenous Plavac Mali grape grows.
From Ston there is only short way to Prapratno where a new ferry
terminal
has opened April 2006. From here the car ferry leaves to Sobra three
times
a day to the very beautiful Island of Mljet.
Before you reach Potomje you pass Trstenik where the famous wine farmer, Mr. Grgic has his cellars and where the catamaran ferry leaves for the national park on Mljet.
Also before Potomje, half way up the peninsular at the eastern
cost facing
Komarna on the mainland you may find a nice beach bar. The bar has
good,
fresh and very tasty mussels at reasonable prices. You can also buy
them
by the kilo and prepare them yourself.
After the beach the road starts to move up and through Janjina. In Gradina above the village there is an Illyrian hill-fort. Near the church of St. Stephen there are walls of a Roman villa rustica and burial stones from the 1st century. The village has several nice captains houses from the 19th century.
Crkvice Village
Turn of the main road if you want to visit a small and secluded settlement on the coast facing Ploce. Take the road to the right one km before you reach Potomje in direction Kuna. Kuna is a small village with a couple of big churches. When you reach Kuna there is a road turning left to a Fransican monastery with the biggest church outside Dubrovnik.
To go to Crkvice turn tight into Kuna, go straight ahead and keep right against Crkvice. There is a sign on the road. After you have turned right the road goes up a little and 1.5 km through a pine forest.
Then it starts to climb down the north side of Peljesac. 6.5 km with 23 serpentine turn. Cars can only pass each other here at the turns so look out! It is common that the car going up should reverse to the previous turn and let the car going down pass.
At the end of the road, you will be rewarded with a lovely little harbour, a view of the Neretva Mouth and even a clear view to Komarna.
Potomje
The best wines grow to the west of Potomje behind the mountains. In older times the people of Potomje had to travel more than 20 km to get to their wine fields. Today they use a tunnel that has been blown through the mountain. You will see the tunnel straight ahead if you turn left towards the first farms in Potomje (coming from the east). Try to drive through the tunnel and you will be rewarded with a great view of the Adriatic and the Islands of Mljet and Korcula - and theoretically you can see all the way to Italy.
One of the big wine producers is Mr. Matusko. You can taste and buy his wines in a house close to the tunnel. There is a selection of both red and white wines at prices from 20 to 80 Kuna per bottle.
If you continue on to the town of Orebic, the best-known tourist resort on Peljesac, there is a ferry to the Island of Korcula, but that should be a separate trip. To visit Korcula, we suggest that you take the ferry from Ploce in the morning, go through to Orebic and dedicate the whole day to the beautiful Island of Korcula. In the City of Korcula there is a house where Marco Polo is believed to have been born (yes, he was a Croat. Although the area was part of The Republic of Venice at the time).
Wines from Peljesac
The best wines come from the Dingac slopes behind the mountain where the ground is very stony and where you would not think the chances are big of producing any kind of crop. But believe me, some of the wines are world class and since the return of Croats who have learned wine production in California, the quality has been stable year over year. Go into one of the places where they offer you samples of their wines. Taste them - and try also to taste the more expensive ones. If you enjoy wines and maybe even has it as a hobby, you will be able to taste something that is still quite rare in Europe, but is sure to gain respect over the next few years.
The typical Dingac is a strong, dry red wine
with 14% alcohol content,
but there are several variations and they also produce some good white
wines (the best one I have tasted for years - actually).
If you want to taste the most famous Dingac wine you have to go down towards the little town Trstenik - that is well before you get to Potomje at the eastern edge of Dingac district. Half way down from the main road on the left you find the house of Mr. Grgic. He makes one red wine and the price is 200 Kuna per bottle. Hefty, but I promise you it is something quite unique.
The wines from the area east of the Dingac District is called Postup. It is the same grapes, but very different wines.
Wine in South Dalmatia
Important words to remember when you "decode" the labels:
- Bijelo vino = White wine
- Crno vino (black) = Red wine
- Crveno vino (red) = Red wine
- Stolno vino = Table wine
- Kvalitetno vino = Quality wine
- Vrhunsko vino = Excellent wine
- Suho = Dry
Croatia has a long tradition for wine making and most of it is still produced from small private wine yards and consumed by the farmer's family and friends. Everybody in Dalmatia has their own secret place where they get "the best wine" from and some of it is amazingly good. The problem is however that as it is fermented and produced by traditional methods it is not possible to maintain a reasonably predictable quality. Some years it is very good and some it is terrible.
On the Peljesac Peninsula we find a good example in the small village Trstenik where Mr Miljenko Grgic has founded Grgic Vina. As a young man Mr. Grgic studied wine making at the University of Zagreb. In 1958 he immigrated to USA with 20 dollar in his pocket and eventually ended up running his own winery in Napa Valley. He returned to Croatia in 1996 and he now produces some of the best wines made on the red Plavac Mali and the white Posip grapes. Both are indigenous to Croatia and specifically Peljesac.
On Peljesac the grapes are protected by law. Here you also find the two most famous districts: Postup and Dingac. Both districts use Plavac grapes, and the wines are quite different in character. Postup grows in the centre of Peljesac and Dingac grows on the western slopes of the mountain range running along the cost.
Plavac Mali is also grown in many other places along the Croatian cost - resulting in very different qualities. But the home of the grape is Peljesac and this is where you should visit it and taste it. The Peljesac Dingac may have up to 15% alcohol so you better agree who should drive before you start tasting (Please do remember that the Croats have a zero tolerance towards drinking and driving. The police have the gear to test you and they will use it).
In Potomje, further west from Trstenik you
should visit Mr. Matusko's cellar.
Here you have the option to compare different wines from both Postup
and
Dingac districts and at prices from 20 to 80 Kuna per bottle. You find
The Matusko winery west of the main road just before you enter Potomje.
Turn down the road and turn left at the first big buildings.
The Plavac Mali wine plant does not quite look the way you may expect. It is kept very low and almost like a bonsai. The reason is that the very hot weather in summer can completely dry out the ground, but with the plants kept low and close together they can keep a proper amount of humidity. If you see plants tied up like they are in Italy and France it is the white wine which is more robust and can manage on dry soil.
The historic origin of Croatian wine is probably Greek. The ancient Greeks did not only establish a commercial and cultural centre in Dalmatia they also planted wine. Twenty two centuries ago the Greek writer Athenaios wrote about the wine produced on the Dalmatian island of Vis, Hvar and Korcula. Many jugs and coins have been found from that time with symbols of wine and wine growing. It was an important factor in the economic life of people in the Greek colonies. The tradition around wine growing was continued by the Romans and later the Slavs.
Wine making on Korcula and Peljesac was at times almost a cult and wine was treated as a sacred liquid. There is a statute from 1214 for Korcula that contains strict rules protecting the vineyards.