Zira has been invited by our partners Despotika Winery, the supplier of our house wine. The visit was planned partly as a study tour for our restaurant staff and partly as a team building. Despotika Winery is located at Vlaski Dol village, some 80km southeast of Belgrade, in the heart of Sumadija district, famous for its vineyards and forests and one of the most important wine regions of Serbia.

 

 

Upon our arrival we were served a welcome drink, grappa(Lozovaca), and were shortly given a tour of the winery starting with their own wine museum where we learned all about the local wine customs from the Roman Era to more modern times. Afterwards we were taken to a completely different setting where we were demonstrated the most modern ways of wine making from the grape to the final bottled product on the shelf. We were served a customarily Sumadija style lunch with essential tasting of different sorts of wines and necessary matching with food. Afterwards we were served desserts on the beautiful sun terrace on the rooftop with a fantastic scenic view of the surrounding country. Our hosts waited for the wine to start doing its thing to present us with the entertainment for the day, a game called Wine Fishing. I am proud to say that three of us have a Master fisherman’s potential! For the end they took us to a tour of the vineyards where they showed us an open vineyard museum with all of the oldest authentic Serbian grape varieties. After a day of good food, excellent wine and lots of laughs, all that was left to do was to say our goodbyes, thank our friends from Despotika Winery and wait for another excuse to go visit them. http://www.zirahotels.com/en/team-building-despotika-vinary#