The wonderful vegetarian platter

Waterside lunch at Eremitaž

We came across the Bistro Eremitaž (that’s Hermitage with a Croatian accent!) when we went sketching at a little beach out on the north shore of Stari Grad. We read the menu, looked at the inviting shady terrace overlooking the water and thought – we must come back and eat here sometime. Two years later,…

Dalmatian Wine Expo 2012 set for last weekend in April

I see from the Dalmatian Wine Expo’s website that their next event will be 27-29 April, 2012 in Makarska. Most of the rest of the information on the site is still about last year’s very enjoyable gathering, including a photo gallery. Looking forward to April – great time for a trip to the Dalmatian coast!…

In Vino Veritas

Here’s a great song for New Year’s Eve… or any occasion with glass of wine in hand! No klapa concert is complete without this catchy song. It has a chorus that even foreigners can sing along with – and indeed will probably be singing it all the way home! We first heard this, appropriately enough,…

Darnekusa wine

Darnekuša – a different red from Hvar

Visited the Plančić winery in Vrbanj yesterday in search of a bottle of their wonderful Pharos Grand Cru. We had tasted it at the Dalmatian Wine Expo in May, and have wanted a bottle all to ourselves ever since! So, seeing the lovely new sign on the Stari Grad – Jelsa road for “Plančić Winery…

Plavac Mali

I’ve just been reading a great book on Plavac Mali, the quintessential Dalmatian red wine. Very readable, and how nice to find such a good source of information written in English! I was particularly interested to read the history, and amazed at how far back it goes. Plavac Mali comes out of a cross between…

Dalmatian Wine Expo 2011

Set against the stunning backdrop of Makarska and the coastal mountains, the Dalmatian Wine Expo is a wonderful opportunity to explore the latest offerings from the local winemakers. In this its second year, the event has moved to a marquee right on the seafront, a big improvement in atmosphere from the sports hall last year!…

Red, red wine

I’m not a wine expert, just a happy enthusiast. We like to try the local wines wherever we go, and it’s got us into trouble more than once – most notably on Sicily some years ago when we managed to get lost in Catania’s tiny municipal park on our way back to our hotel from…

Roman Holiday

Unlike the Greek settlers before them, the ancient Romans made themselves much more comfortable on the island. Of course it helps that they owned the mainland – Dalmatia was a Roman province, with a large city at Salona, on the sheltered northern harbour of today’s Split. The modern city of Split started life as the…

A Glass of White Wine

We always like to try the local wine when travelling. Croatia has some lovely indigenous grape varietals that produce white wines a little different to your usual chardonnays and sauvignon blancs. Notice how much our choice has generally been reduced, in a kind of middle-of-the-road way. Safe and ubiquitous. But in this country the grapes…