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Many years ago we stumbled upon an old Venetian Land Register map dating from 1753 in the city museum. We discovered that our estate was called Villa di Meljine, with the entire stretch of Savina planted in vineyards, and we knew what we had to do.

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Our house, farm and winery are all located on the Savina hillside, above Savina Monastery in the town area of Meljine in Herceg Novi. The winery lies there, tucked away in lavish Mediterranean vegetation, in an idyllic coastal and woodland setting. Savina Monastery, some 200m away, dates all the way back to 1030, although the oldest records in which it is mentioned date back to 1648.

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As for our forage into winemaking, it started 17 years ago, as an extension of a great, sincere love of wine. After years of touring the best wineries in France, Italy and the region, my wife Gordana and I decided to do something for ourselves, our property and for the whole local area. Thus after returning from London to our hometown, we decided without much hesitation to plant vineyards on our estate. Today we have two hectares with international grape varietals (Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Chardonnay)  and one indigenous white varietal, Žižak (zhizhak), similar to Dubrovnik’s Malvasia (as opposed to the Istrian one). The vineyards are located in the best part of the estate, with southern exposition, with a spectacular view over the sea.

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Our wines appeared on the market only in 2014. Until that point, other winemakers envied us for not having to sell our wine – we made it for ourselves and our friends, in smaller quantities, simply because we really enjoyed it. We are now still not burdened with any great expectations: our goal is to stay small and make wines for the Bay of Kotor, the coast and only a little bit for our friends in Belgrade, a total of no more than 20,000 bottles.

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Our wines are characterized by a light and breezy, summer style. This is true for our Chardonnay and Rose, but even for our red wines. Our plan is to make one serious dessert wine from the local variety Žižak.

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We recognize that being in the vineyard and winemaking in general is a great privilege. But primarily we wish to revive our locality, to preserve it, to renew it. We have recently planted vineyards on the monastery grounds because we want to make wine for Savina Monastery.

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Through winemaking, we wish to give greater meaning to our stay at this, in many ways, special place.

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– Zoran Obradovic

from the book “Najbolje Vinarije Ex-Yu”