General Information About the Sector

Along the well-established “Wine Roads,” tourists enjoy the hospitality of Montenegrin winemakers in protected cultural landscapes where centuries-old stone terraces lie quietly, enabling vineyards to cascade down toward the hot sea sand or the shores of the largest lake in the Balkans. More than 50% of the awards won by Montenegrin winemakers at international competitions were received for wine produced from this variety, considered by most Montenegrin wine lovers to be unsurpassed. Preliminary scientific research into the genetic structure of indigenous varieties indicates that Montenegro is an ancient wine-growing region with many as-yet-undiscovered genotypes unknown to science, and that it is, in a sense, the epicentral area from which Kratošija spread throughout the world, helping shape the wine landscapes of near and distant destinations. Of the 140 registered wineries, more than 65% have maximum annual production capacities of up to 5,000 liters of wine; 22 wineries have capacities of up to 10,000 liters; 12 wineries can produce up to 20,000 liters; and 6 producers (6.2%) have capacities of up to 100,000 liters. Twelve names are protected as designations of origin for wine: “Crmnica,” “Podgorica Subregion,” “Ulcinj Subregion,” “Kuči,” “Riječka Nahija,” “Katunska Nahija,” “Piperi,” “Bjelopavlići,” “Nudo,” “Bay of Kotor,” “Budva-Bar Subregion,” and “Hinterland of the Adriatic,” as well as two geographical indications: “Montenegrin Skadar Lake Basin” and “Montenegrin Coast.” Perhaps nature’s interplay reaches its culmination precisely between three shades of blue—the sky, the Adriatic Sea, and Lake Skadar—where mountain and Mediterranean air currents collide, the scents of linden and pine mingle with those of orange and peach, and the deep green of conifers is interwoven with silvery olive groves and Montenegro’s oldest vineyards.