Oplenac Grape Harvest 2013

08. October 2013

Oplenac Grape Harvest, a traditional three day festival of grapes, wine and national folklore, will be held in Topola for the 50^th time, starting October 10^th. Aside from the famous Oplenac grapes and wines, visitors will be given the opportunity to enjoy a variety of specialties of traditional Serbian cuisine, fruit and vegetable exhibitions, and diverse cultural and art...

Oplenac Grape Harvest, a traditional three day festival of grapes, wine and national folklore, will be held in Topola for the 50^th time, starting October 10^th. Aside from the famous Oplenac grapes and wines, visitors will be given the opportunity to enjoy a variety of specialties of traditional Serbian cuisine, fruit and vegetable exhibitions, and diverse cultural and art manifestations.

The first records on vine-growing in this region date back to 1432 and the travelogues written by Bertrandon de la Broquière, a Burgundian pilgrim and a clerk in the court of Philip III the Good. Grapes and wine are still a symbol of this region’s villages, therefore it proudly carries the title of the capital of Serbian vines.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the winegrowers` cooperative from Vencac was built and later on, the vineyard and the wine cellar of King Petar and Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, and they spread fame of wine from Oplenac throughout Europe.

The favorable climate, composition and the soil and configuration of the terrain are convenient for the growing of autochthonous grape sorts, such as Prokupac, Vranac and Smederevka.

In the Royal cellar there are archive wines, so they are certainly the oldest national wines preserved in Serbia. From 1931 there are Oplenka, Zilavka and White Burgundy, filled in unique bottles with the royal crest, and coming from later years are Prokupac, Hamburg and Plemenka.