Last week, the folks from Carić Winery in the Hvar island of Croatia posted a really nice picture on their Facebook wall of the village of Svirče and the lavender growing wild around it. It was quite pleasing and made us want to go back through the photos from our last visit when we were researching the Hvar wines (which you can read about more in depth in our Vinologue Dalmatia guide).
Hvar gets a tremendous amount of good press for its inherent beauty and it’s definitely true that sipping on a glass of Plovac Mali (local dialect for the grape Plavac Mali) while looking out from Hvar Town (photo above) is enchanting. It’s also great to wander the narrow streets of the center of town and admire its old buildings (pictured above), stopping for a coffee in one of the many beautiful terraces.
Often skipped in favor of Hvar Town or Stari Grad is Jelsa (photo below), where we stayed during our trip. There are wineries there like Tomić’s Bastijana as well as other smaller wineries tucked away. It’s an overall quieter town that many might prefer given that Hvar Town can get quite rowdy with tourists at the peak of beach season.
The only downside to visiting Hvar is the incredibly early morning (05:00) ferry from Jelsa which can be made an even more painful morning if a Mišo Kovač concert is playing loudly the night before as we were lucky to experience. Despite the scheduling, this ferry is quite crucial though as it connects people to Bol on Brač as well as back to Croatia’s ferry hub on the mainland of Split.
Speaking of ferries, plan your trip accordingly as if you do like we did and end up in Sućaraj, which is on the opposite end of the quite long island of Hvar (and about 60km from Hvar Town) then you should come with a car. Otherwise, while the views like the one below are nice, trying to get across to the other side of the island is rather difficult as we learned the hard way…
To everyone headed to Hvar this summer, all of this awaits you and we have to say that we’re just the slightest bit jealous. Make sure to drink as much Plenković Grand Cru as you can while there and grab a copy of our Dalmatia Vinologue guide if you want a bit more information on the wines!
