The Pelješac Wine Roads

Pelješac is a long, dry, stony peninsula, and it grows Plavac Mali, the red grape behind Croatia's heaviest wines. The two names to know are Dingač and Postup, steep south-facing slopes above the sea on the far side of the ridge, where vines are worked by hand on gradients too severe for machinery and the fruit takes sun from above and off the water at the same time. Growers used to carry the harvest over the ridge by donkey until a narrow tunnel was cut through it. The wines are dark, tannic and high in alcohol. Cellars on the main road at Potomje and Trstenik pour them.

What you actually see

• The Dingač slopes - near-vertical terraced vineyards dropping to the sea, best seen from the coast road below.
• The Dingač tunnel - a single-lane tunnel bored through the ridge so grapes no longer had to go over it.
• Cellar doors at Potomje - a cluster of producers on the main road offering tastings and sales.
• Plavac Mali - the grape itself, from the big protected wines to lighter everyday bottlings.

When to go

May, June, September and October. Harvest falls in September and cellars are working then, which is interesting but busy. Many small producers are appointment-only outside summer. The tunnel and the coast road below it are single lane in places, so avoid driving them at dusk or in heavy rain.

Honest expectations

These are big wines, often fifteen per cent alcohol or more, and they are hard work in summer heat. The good bottles are expensive by Croatian standards, and roadside tastings range from serious to perfunctory. A car is essential and the driver drinks nothing, on narrow roads with drops. Dingač and Postup are protected names, but plenty of lesser wine is sold nearby with similar-looking labels.

Nearby

Ston and its walls sit at the base of the peninsula, and Korčula is a short ferry from Orebić.