Travel: Cruise passengers tour the countryside in Croatia by bicycle
Waterloo Region Record
In front of us was a building that once was a Communist-era ammunition bunker and now held an award-winning winery.
Apparently that’s a natural transition to make in Croatia, a Mediterranean country that was part of the war-torn former Yugoslavia.
Our Bike and Wine Adventure tour group from the Disney Magic cruise ship has just pedalled up to Dubrovacki Podrumi Winery outside Dubrovnik and now our guide, Valgho Carevic, is talking history.
“Don’t be afraid,” he says in accented English.
“It was an ammunition bunker, but the wine is good and it’s nice inside.”
The only exterior clue that this bland and grey concrete edifice is now dedicated to the nectar of the grape is some wine barrels stacked out front and a stainless steel tank or two in the back..
But by the time we enter the air-conditioned interior and Andelka Spulovic hands my wife and I and the others in the group a chilled glass of white wine the Communist past and 1991 war is forgotten.
We’re sampling 2011 Malvasija, a wine made from a grape of the same name that is notoriously fragile.
Only small wineries tend to use it, but when they do it properly they are rewarded with fresh and mineraly wines.
Malvasija can also deceptively pack quite a wallop with up to 16.7 per cent alcohol.
Thus its nickname as the “diplomacy wine,” reflecting its role as a negotiating tool and tongue loosener in past negotiations both political and vinous.
We also taste three smooth and elegant reds, a 2007 Trajectum, a grandly-named blend of well-known Cabernet Sauvignon and little-known Croatian varietal Konavosko Vinogorje; a 2007 Merlotina, what we know as Merlot with a few more letters tacked on; and a 2008 Plausus, another blend of local varieties.
We buy bottles to sip later when we’re back on the cruise ship, knowing it will likely be the last time we taste these yummy wines.
Production is limited and Croatians and tourists are able to drink up whatever is made without having to export much.
It wasn’t always this way.
Under Communism, grape growers were forced to supply their fruit to cooperatives that made plonk and tourists certainly didn’t arrive on Disney ships to cycle through the countryside.
On the 45-minute bus ride from the stunning port city of Dubrovnik to the village of Gruda to start biking, guide Valgho asks us if we like politically incorrect jokes.
After some jabs at the Serbs, Italians and French, he says it would be nice if we could consume our wine before cycling because “drinking and driving is best.”
But we obey all the safety rules and cycle our 15-kilometre round trip from the winery without touching a drop and wearing our helmets.
The terrain is undulating and the scenery pastoral, all vineyards and wineries, apple and peach orchards, small villages, cypress stands, valleys, mountains and rivers.
We pass a cow grazing in front of a vineyard, stop to check on the progress of growing grapes, snap pictures of an oldtimer installing irrigation pipes at the Koroman Winery, pause at St. Blaise Monastery and take a water and snack break along side the Ljuta River.
The most menacing thing to happen on the trip is when we roll into the village of Lovorno.
A snaggy dog that Valgho calls Tiger charges the group, barking fiercely.
Before long, however, he is quiet and starts wagging his tail as he ambles through our group in a zigzag.
The great thing about doing the Bike and Wine Adventure from a Disney ship is that my wife and I were able to slip away for some adult time and leave our 10-year-old daughter on board, knowing she was safely signed into the tween’s Edge club and enjoying a cooking class, crafts, swims in the pool and Wii video games.
The stop in Dubrovnik is part of the Disney Magic’s 12-day Mediterranean cruise, which also takes in ports in Spain, France, Italy and Malta.
Learn more online at:
www.Croatia.hr/en
Steve MacNaull is a Canadian travel writer based in Kelowna, B.C. His trip was sponsored by the Disney Cruise Line.
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