Wine, Hardship and Survival – The Story of Vis Through the Vine

Two Thousand Years of Wine, Landscape and Island Life

For more than two thousand years, vineyards have shaped the landscape, economy and everyday life of Vis. The story of wine on the island is also a story of prosperity, hardship, migration and survival.

To understand the history of Vis, it helps to understand wine.

Long before tourism became important to the island, vineyards were part of its economy and its way of life. Generations of islanders cultivated vines in difficult Mediterranean conditions, building dry-stone walls, working small plots of land and depending on the harvest for their livelihood.

Wine brought periods of prosperity to Vis. It also became closely connected with some of the island’s most difficult chapters.

In many ways, the history of Vis can be read through the vine.

Wine in Ancient Issa

The winemaking tradition of Vis reaches back more than 2,000 years.

In the 4th century BC, Greek settlers from Syracuse established the colony of Issa on the site of present-day Vis Town. Archaeological evidence and ancient references show that wine was already an important part of the economy and culture of the island during antiquity.

Viticulture continued after Issa became part of the Roman world. Wine, amphorae and maritime trade connected the island with communities across the Adriatic and wider Mediterranean.

The association between Vis and wine was therefore established remarkably early – centuries before many of the landscapes and villages visitors recognise today existed.

Building a Living from Stone

Growing vines on Vis was never easy.

Much of the island is rocky, exposed to strong sun and affected by long, dry Mediterranean summers. Where suitable soil existed, generations of farmers worked it carefully. Elsewhere, slopes were transformed using dry-stone walls and terraces.

Stones removed from the fields became walls. The walls helped retain soil, reduce erosion and make difficult terrain cultivable.

The result can still be seen across Vis today.

Dry-stone walls run through abandoned fields, climb hillsides and surround vineyards throughout the island interior. They are more than picturesque features of the landscape: they are evidence of generations of agricultural labour.

For many families, wine was not a luxury product. It was part of how they survived.

The Golden Age of Vis Wine

Viticulture became especially important during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Across Dalmatia, demand for wine increased dramatically during the 19th century, and vineyards expanded. Vis participated in this wider boom, with grape growing and wine production becoming central to the island economy.

Land that could support vines was valuable, and families cultivated plots scattered throughout the island.

Wine generated income, supported trade and helped sustain communities whose lives were otherwise constrained by the limited resources of a relatively remote Adriatic island.

But the prosperity was vulnerable.

Towards the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, a combination of disease and changing trading conditions transformed Dalmatian viticulture.

Phylloxera, Crisis and Emigration

The phylloxera epidemic was one of the greatest disasters in the history of European wine.

The tiny insect attacks the roots of grapevines and devastated vineyards across Europe during the second half of the 19th century. Dalmatia was hit particularly hard from the 1890s onwards.

At roughly the same time, changing trade conditions made life even more difficult for Dalmatian wine producers.

For communities that depended heavily on vines, the consequences were severe.

Vineyards were lost, incomes collapsed and many people left Dalmatia in search of opportunities elsewhere. The broader crisis contributed to the great waves of emigration that carried Dalmatian families to North and South America, Australia and New Zealand.

Vis was part of this story.

The abandoned terraces and dry-stone walls visible across parts of the island today are therefore not simply remnants of old agriculture. They also belong to a landscape shaped by economic change and population loss.

Vugava – The White Grape of Vis

No grape is more closely associated with Vis than Vugava.

Vugava is an old indigenous Dalmatian white variety whose strongest historical association is with the island. Its exact origin is uncertain, although traditions have long connected it with the ancient viticultural history of Vis.

The grape produces distinctive, often full-bodied and aromatic white wines and remains one of the defining varieties of modern Vis winemaking.

For visitors interested in wine, tasting Vugava on the island where it has been cultivated for generations offers a direct connection between the landscape and the glass.

Plavac Mali – The Red Side of Vis

The other great variety associated with Vis is Plavac Mali, one of Dalmatia’s most important indigenous red grapes.

Plavac Mali thrives in the sunny conditions of coastal Dalmatia and can produce powerful wines with dark fruit, Mediterranean herbal character and considerable structure.

Although the variety is also strongly associated with other parts of southern Dalmatia, particularly the Pelješac peninsula and neighbouring islands, it has a long-established place in the vineyards and wine culture of Vis.

Together, Vugava and Plavac Mali represent the two most recognisable faces of the island’s wine tradition.

Decline and Revival

The 20th century brought further changes.

Agriculture gradually became less important, the island’s population declined and many vineyards were abandoned. Vis also became a strategically important military island within Yugoslavia and remained largely closed to foreign visitors for decades.

Yet the wine tradition never disappeared.

In recent decades, local families and a new generation of producers have restored vineyards, improved winemaking and renewed interest in the island’s traditional grape varieties.

Today, wineries across Vis produce modern expressions of Vugava, Plavac Mali and other varieties while working within a landscape shaped by centuries of cultivation.

Some operate modern tasting rooms. Others work from small family vineyards and cellars. Together they are giving new life to one of the oldest elements of Vis culture.

Wine as Part of the Island

Wine on Vis is more than something served with dinner.

It is visible in the dry-stone walls crossing the countryside, in old vineyard houses, in the fields around the island’s inland villages and in the bottles produced by today’s winemakers.

It connects ancient Issa with the farmers of the 19th century and the wineries operating on the island today.

Few things tell the story of Vis quite so clearly.

A glass of Vugava or Plavac Mali is therefore not simply a taste of the island.

It is part of a story that has been unfolding here for more than two thousand years.

Sources & further reading

• Wines of Croatia – Dalmatia Croatian wine region overview, including Vugava, Plavac Mali and the devastating impact of phylloxera on Dalmatian viticulture.
  
• Wines of Croatia – Croatian Grape Varieties — useful authoritative background on Vugava, including the important qualification that its exact origin is unknown although it is regarded as an old local variety.
  
• Gospodarski list – Vugava je jedna od najstarijih hrvatskih autohtonih vinskih sorti — detailed Croatian agricultural source on the history and identity of Vugava and its association with Vis.
• Senjanović Winery – Vineyard and Wine — useful first-hand information from a Vis producer about contemporary Vugava and Plavac Mali cultivation on the island.