Celebrating 20 years of wine tastings in our wine cellar

Exactly 20 years ago, in July 2002, we held the first commercial wine tasting, not only in our winery but on the whole island! One needs to remember that in those times, tourism was basically an exotic foreign word on Vis. Up to the 1990’s, the island was completely closed to the public, private accommodation was non-existent, and two small hotels were all the tourism infrastructure there was. Wine tastings… for whom?

We didn’t know either, yet we knew we had the product and we knew we had a story. The wines themselves were never in question. Vugava and plavac from “the forbidden island” have always inspired awe, but the production was then still far below capacities and distribution channels were seriously lacking. However, instead of knocking on the doors, we decided to open our own! Someone will surely discover we produce fantastic wines, someone will surely wish to visit the only wine cellar in the world placed within a WW2 military tunnel, someone will surely feel the love generations and generations of Lipanović family pour into this holy soil of Vis and, with sun’s generous help, draw the most alluring nectar known to mankind in return.

Some discovered, some wished, some even felt us. Then they’d recommend us to people they knew and the circles got wider and wider, so wide that in these 20 years, through all kinds of wine tastings in our cellar and vineyards, we hosted more than 100,000 visitors from 120 countries of the world! Even now these numbers sound quite ridiculous to us – who would’ve ever hoped! – so we rather measure in friendships. When we first started, we wanted to attract guests but we didn’t know that we would actually be creating a community. Wine lovers recognize each other immediately, always have common themes to discuss, and really, really love to toast – to sun, to the sea, to life, to everything. They may be from South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Korea, Ukraine, Canada or Faroe Islands – and those are just the countries we received new friends from in the past few months – but with good wine we’ll always find a common reason for a toast.

Twenty years later, we seem to know what we’re doing. According to our visitors’ most frequent wishes, we created three different wine tasting options, the offer is all standardized, clear and transparent, yet each now meeting with a new group is as unique and special as the wines of Vis and the island delicacies we serve and share with our new friends. Twenty years ago, we opened the doors to our world and let life surprise us. Ever since, the surprises have been never-ending. Let’s toast to life’s glorious surprises together on your next visit to our mythical wine cellar!