Croatia is a country whose wines conquer the palate not only in its homeland, but also far beyond its borders. Extremely well-known and popular varieties are Istrian Malvasia , Kutjevac graševina , dingač from the Pelješac peninsula and many others, but the variety that has every right to be called royal is definitely Ilok Traminac . Iločki traminac is a top quality dry wine produced in the Iločki podrumi in the Srijem vineyard in Croatian Podunavlje . The best hand-picked grapes turn into a golden yellow wine.
Wine production in this area has been present since antiquity , more precisely since the time of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Probus (3rd century BC). At the beginning of the 18th century, the Italian noble family Odescalchi gave the name Principovac to the best vineyard location in this area . Soon, the Odescalchi family brought the first vine of Traminca from South Tyrol to Principovac , which marked the beginning of the history of this top Iloka variety. With the end of the Second World War, nationalization took place, but it did not mark the end of the wine production tradition of Ilok cellars. In 1953, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was celebrated . , and it served top quality Traminac from the 1947 vintage. This wine left an exceptional impression on the British court because it was drunk again in 2012 during the celebration of the Diamond Jubilee , i.e. 60 years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The tram from Ilok again found its way to London at the coronation of Charles III. in 2023
During the Homeland War, Iločki podrumi found themselves in danger from JNA soldiers who knew how valuable these wines were. Thanks to the ingenuity of cellarman Franjo Volf , this Croatian treasure was saved. This hero came up with the idea of storing 8,000 of the most valuable archival wines in a part of the cellar and walling off that space so that the occupiers would not find them. Although many wines were drunk, spilled and baked into brandy during that period, thanks to Mr. Wolff, the most valuable wines were still saved.
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