DINGAC Wine!

It's no secret that I love good wine - especially a bold fruit-forward jammy wine like Zinfandel, Primativo, Shiraz, Syrah, and Malbec.










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When we started planning a trip to Croatia, our guidebook recommended a wine bar named D'Vino.  We went there on our afternoon Dubrovnik wandering.  It is a lovely shop right off the main street, and it owner Sasha got us hooked up with a large group of Swedes that he was taking on a wine trip that week. 





 We hit it off with the Swedes, and they gave us the thumbs up on joining them.  So, for the one rainy day of our trip, we spent drinking wine and visiting the beautiful Peljesac Peninsula famous for its Dingac (pronounced Din-gach) Wines.

It was a wonderful way to spend the day, and we visited some unique areas outside of the standard tourist zone.  The Peljesac Peninsula is a wine-lovers mecca, which has been producing great wines going back to Roman times. 













The primary grape varietal is called, Mali Plavec, and the most famous wine-growing region on the Pinensula is called Dingac. 

The area is very relaxed, and most of the wineries we visited appeared to be located in peoples homes.  It made me think of the film, "Bottle Shock", which took place in 70's Napa Valley, and that this must have been what it was like back then. 

It made me wonder what this area will be like in another decade as the world discovers what amazing wines come from here.






We visited one family who makes the most amazing wine.  It was so low key and homey.  The wife had made home made apple cake.  I think everyone bought a couple bottles from them. 

One of the Swedes bought a bottle of some of the most wonderful high-end Dingac wine.  Tony brought out some chocolate, and we enjoyed Dingac and Chocolate on a patio in the rain.

 We ended the wine tour at a wine shop, where we drank a few more bottles of wine.  By this time, I had given up on trying to keep up with the Swedes who were quite happy. 

 







I would highly recommend if you are visiting Dubrovnik, to take a day and do a wine-tasting excursion.  It was awesome.

Luxembourg - Day 4 - The Moselle Valley

Before heading to Luxembourg, we made a reservation with a bike touring company called Feel for an afternoon of Biking and Winetasting in the Moselle River Valley. Our guide met us at our hotel, and drove us up to there. It was a beautiful day, and very warm.




We met up with another couple who were also joining us, and picked up our bikes. The Moselle Valley has been used for cultivating wine going back all the way to the Romans and is known for growing some of the finest Reising grapes in the world.




Everywhere were the signs of wine making in the little villages lining the river.










Traditional presses of all shapes and sizes.









Tony loves to bike ride, and you could clearly see how much he was loving this.



The vineyards were bright green and loving all the warmth. They are absolutely stunning right now lining the valley walls.


























It was an idealic setting with families of swans swimming near the beautiful grassy shore.




The Moselle river divides Luxembourg from Germany. And it is fairly distinct as one side is the laid back relaxed Luxembourg, and the other is the developed and more productive German side. (this was commentary from our guide - I'm not trying to offend).











We crossed the river into Germany, and biked to Apel Vineyards, a small Inn and winery, where we would have our wine tasting. It was nice to sit in the shade after biking quite a ways in the bright sun. They were having a BBQ, and it smelled wonderful. I'd like to come back here for a lazy long weekend sometime.

We tried several different wines, but the ones we liked best both came from the Elbling Grapes, which were they type of grapes the Romans were cultivating in the valley. It is a bright sweetish white wine, and particulary refreshing after a good hot bike ride. We also tried a late harvest dessert wine made from the Elbling grapes. We ended up buying a bottle of each.








The Inn was very nice and laidback. I could see sitting here eating BBQ and drinking some nice wine for the perfect Sunday afternoon.

The bike ride back to where we started was much easier than the bike ride up as we followed the flat path along the rivers edge. This did however afford us some beautiful views of the vineyard hills that we'd ridden through earlier.




Magnificent.










It was so nice to be bike ridding in the countryside, and enjoying the color of green.



We ended our bike ride at a wine processing, tasting, and dining facility back on the Luxembourg side of the Moselle.



We really enjoyed the bike and wine tasting tour as it gave us a completely different experience of Luxembourg from the city and castle side of it.





That evening, we had a well deserved Ice Cream Sunday to celebrate our last evening in Luxembourg.