Macedonia Gourmet Wine Travel

Discover Macedonia – a very exciting wine region together with Euorpe`s premier Expert for Gourmet Wine Travel

Enjoy unforgettable moments during your awesome group travel – Enhance your wine experience

Experience 4 and 5 Star Hotels, excellent cuisine and  and bring unforgettable moments with you back home

Arrival at Skopje Airport Alexandar the Great – Meeting the local guide and transfer to Skopje – check in hotel – Dinner@ traditional local restaurant DUKAT

The 5-star Bushi Resort & SPA is situated in the Old Bazaar district in Skopje, 600 metres from Stone Bridge, Bushi Resort & SPA boasts a terrace and views of the garden. The hotel has a spa centre and hot tub, and guests can enjoy a drink at the bar. Free WiFi is offered throughout the property.

Then we will have a lovely Dinner in the traditional Restaurant Dukat. Restaurant Dukat is great place with authentic, warm and pleasant atmosphere. There is also very often live music at night. We will try many traditional dishes.

After dinner we will return to the Hotel by a private bus.

Departure for Domain Lepovo – Walk through the vineyards of Domaine Lepovo – Wine education – Walk through the vineyards of Barovo – Wine Tasting accompanied by traditional Macedonian food, prepared on site in the vineyards by the Chef – Visit of the winery Tikves – Wine education and dinner in the restaurant of the winery Tikves

Morning departure from Skopje towards Tikves wine region. Transfer to Domain Lepovo, by our private bus. The Lepovo vineyards are located 90 km south of Skopje and 7 km from the town Negotino. They are planted at an altitude of 180 meters in the area of Crveni Bregovi that has the most ideal soil for the grape variety Chardonnay. Domaine Lepovo offers ideal conditions not only for Chardonnay, but also for growing grapes likes Vranec, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and is producing superior wines with extraordinary quality. Domaine Lepovo is an important novelty with small production of sophisticated wines and and important contributor to the quality of the Macedonian wine industry.

We continue driving by bus to the Barovo vineyards. They are planted in an altitude of 600 meters at Mountain Kozuf, making them the highest vineyards in Macedonia. On the trail of the ancient Via Egnatia people will findabandoned villages and untouched nature, suitable for wonderful walks, cycling, fishing on the river Bosavica.The vineyard of Barovo, located high in the mountain of South Macedonia, enjoys the fresh temperatures of the mountain at night which enables it to produce a perfectly balanced blend of 65% Kratosija and 35% Vranec, with delicate fruit flavours on the nose and extremely rich and long lasting on the palate. Tasting of wines accompanied by traditional Macedonian food prepared on site in the vineyards of the Chef.

The third winery for today will be Tikves. First, we have a very informative tour around the Tikves winery. Tikves, one of the largest wineries on the Balkans, with many medals for the excellence of their wines, has also a small but elegant and stylish wine tasting restaurant in the heart of its huge winery basement. At the end of a “cask alley” , we enter the stylish underground restaurant and will have a delicious combination of food and wine for our dinner.

Check out Hotel – visiting the old town of Ohrid – boat trip to the Villa & Winery Mal Sveti Kliment – Lunch at the Winery – departure to the wine region of Demir Kapija – Check in – Dinner in the reastaurant of the hotel – overnight

This morning, we will enjoy the visit of the old town of Ohrid. The tour in Ohrid includes visits to the most beautiful churches in Ohrid, Santa Sofia, one of the most important monuments of Macedonia, housing architecture and art from the Middle Ages and also the 13th-century Byzantine church “Our Lady the Most Glorious” with biblical frescoes. We will enjoy the superb lake and Old Town views. Before going to the winery we are going to see the remarkable and most popular site spot for Ohrid and also for Macedonia, Saint John at Kaneo, a Macedonian Orthodox church situated on the cliff over Kaneo Beach. Then we go by boat  to the Villa & Winery Mal Sveti Kliment, an exclusive and privately owned boutique winery. After Lunch, departure to Demir Kapija. Dinner and overnight at Hotel Mokliste & Villa Bella.

Breakfast at the Hotel. Followed by check-out. Transfer to the airport by a private bus.

If your flight is in the afternoon, then you can enjoy a short discovery tour of Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. We will visit the old bazar near to the fortress with many craftsman shops, very particular houses and some mosques, turkish bathes and galleries. After a Light Lunch we will have the transfer to the airport.

Check out Hotel – Departure to the archeological site Stobi- Visiting the archeological site Stobi – Transfer and visit of the Winery Stobi with lunch and wine tasting – Departure to Demir Kapija – Visit of the Royal Winery Queen Maria and wine tasting- Check in hotel – Dinner with wine education in Popova Kula, Demir Kapija

Departure and visiting Stobi: The Ancient City of Stobi – this „magical wonder“ is full of history and ruins of the ancient Macedonia and definitely a must see for any Archaeology enthusiast! But this active excavation of a Roman city is also worth a visit  for everbody. Stobi is one of the most significant and well-known archaeological sites in South-east Europe and provides insight into the historical life, culture, and urban planning of the Hellenistic, Roman, and early Christian settlements in the area.

We will have a guided tour there. We will start at the Roman amphitheatre and clamber up further for Stobi’s best mosaics. You will discover the remains of several buildings and very interesting bathhouses. Some of them still have stunning tile work and beautiful mosaics on the floors. The path continues and we will see also ancient sanctuaries. At the end we can admire some of the enormous city walls. It is really an amazing excavation – so be prepared to „live the Roman life“.

After the visit of the ancient city, departure for Stoby winery. Watch how a winery with 4.5-million liters roll, and enjoy a top notch lunch at the restaurant. This winery is located in central Macedonia, in the Tikvesh wine region. As the Mediterranean climate from the south collides with the Continental climate from the north, it creates an area most remarkable for grape growing and wine production on the entire Balkan Peninsula. This region has proved to be an excellent breeding ground for international grape varieties, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat, Riesling, Traminer and others. Luckily this unique wine region has also its own local, traditional varieties that you will discover. One of these autochtone grape varietals is Vranec, which counts for almost 50% of the planted red grapes. And Vranec means “Black Horse”. Another indigenous grape to taste is Zilavka. We will have a nice Wine-Food-Pairing-Lunch here. Food at the Stobi restaurant ranks at top level in Macedonia.

Transfer by our private bus to the Royal Winery Queen Maria In Demir Kapija, the oldest winery in this part of the Balkan. It was built by King Aleksandar Karadjordjevic in 1928, on the recommendation of top French enologists who advised the King to build the winery exactly in the Tikves region. Today the winery is privately owned, renovated and modified to produce high-quality wines. After a tour through the winery, a tasting will follow

We will drive to Popova Kula, where we will have dinner and stay overnight, As for the time being Popova Kula is the only one producer in the world that produces wine from Stanushina, a unique Macedonian grape variety. And Popova Kula is among the few wineries in the Balkans that produce wine from Prokupec, Zilavka and Temjanika grape varieties. And last but not least Popova Kula  produces Vranec and like the other Macedonian producers dream for the day of its introduction to the world market as the next big red. We invite you to try those wines. We are sure that you will be pleasantly surprised.

Check out Hotel – departure to Ohrid – on the way to Ohrid stop to visit the very nice city Bitola – Having lunch at the winery Ciflik/ or in the tipical restaurant Grne in Bitola – Check in Hotel in Ohrid

In the morning departure to Ohrid, the most beautiful lake town in Macedonia. On the way to Ohrid, we are visiting Bitola, one Macedonia’s beautiful cities, Bitola, lies nestled within the Baba, Nitze, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges. Thus ensuring some dramatic, eye-popping scenery. Largely untouched by the tourist industry, this town is Macedonia’s secret cultural hub, with its refined galleries, museums, restaurants and thriving coffee shop culture making it one of the best places to socialize in Macedonia. From its rock monument Veluška Tumba dating back to prehistoric times, to its neoclassical buildings not unlike the quirky streets of New Orleans, Bitola is a gorgeous melange of architectural styles, beautiful churches and mosques, notably including the elegant Yeni mosque, it is the perfect place to take some great photographs. We are going to visit and have lunch either at the Winery Ciflik, which is near the city of Bitola or we will enjoy the Lunch in the typical restaurant Grne in Bitola.

Now the UNESCO world heritage site of Lake Ohrid is calling us. This historic town is one of the country’s most interesting, as well as visually impressive, travel destinations. The town boasts architecture dating back to the 4th century BC. One of the area’s most fascinating ruins is Samuel’s Fortress, a structure first built during Tsar Samuel’s reign in order to protect the town from invaders during the First Bulgarian Empire. From the winding cobbled alleys and quaint restaurants of the old town to the orange-roofed homes and turquoise waters of the lake, Ohrid is a picture-perfect area alive with lovely places to see. After a nice dinner we will stay overnight at the Aura Hotel.

Check out Hotel – After the breakfast walking tour in Demir Kapija and visit of the wine museum. – Get in contact with a traditionell family and their family house in Ciflik – lunch at the family house in Ciflik – After lunch visit Negotino and the first private winery in Macedonia Bovin – After Bovin departure for Skopje, and wine tasting at Kamnik winery – dinner – overnight in the 5* Bushi Hotel in Skopje

After breakfast we start with a walking tour in Demir Kapija. Visit of the wine museum. About 6 000 years ago in this region started  the  wine culture and survived through centuries and religions to this day.

Transfer to Chiflik. In Chiflik we will visit a private family house and enjoy a lunch prepared by a local family. You will have the chance to experience the typical Macedonian hospitality, enjoy the locally produced food, and taste original homemade rakija. After lunch we will visit the winery Bovin.This winery is a very young wine estate, established in 1998. But already at the  “Food and Wine” Fair 2000 in Copenhagen, Denmark, where their wine “Pinot Noir” was proclaimed absolute winner – Grand Prix in competition of more than 650 types of wines from France, Spain, Italy, Chile, Argentina, California, South Africa and others.

After Bovin winery we depart for Skopje, where we will have a wine tasting at the Kamnik winerery. Whenever you visit Macedonia, many winemakers keep repeating, “you must try Chateau Kamnik.” and now you will experience  this ultra modern boutique winery, established in 2004. Chateau Kamnik has been awarded at some of the strictest and most demanding wine competitions and events in the world. The Chateau Kamnik winery and its vineyards stretch out across 13 hectares of hills with exposition of the slopes to the south, and with excellent microclimatic conditions all year round. The annual production of wine is under 100 000 Liters and most of the wines age in American and French oak barrels.

After check in in the 5-star Bushi Resort & SPA we will have a lovely dinner in Skopje and have good time together.