The golden valley of Kutjevo is best known, of course, for Graševina, but it also yields excellent Rieslings. Ivan Enjingi will present the young 2015 and others from his archive at Zagreb’s Hotel Capital, Jurišićeva 22, in a masterclass on 22 November, just before the Rizling Raj(n)ski festival. He will pour some at the festival itself as well, and will likely bring along excellent white wines of other varieties, of which he has no shortage. The beauty of tasting his wines is that you never know what you will drink — but you can be sure you will drink very well.
The town of Kutjevo is also home to the Kutjevo winery, one of the largest in Croatia, which likewise brings Rieslings to the Zagreb festival. Its Graševinas are far better known, but it makes Riesling every year too. They cellar it in their archive, and offer the 1992 vintage in their online shop. At Hotel Capital, Kutjevo will surely present fine Graševinas as well, and perhaps some other whites. 
There you will also be able to taste the Macedonian Riesling of the Tikveš winery from Kavadarci. Now that is a big story: they own 1,300 hectares of vineyards and oversee grape growing on another 5,000. The winery’s capacity is 32 million litres, and it sells more than 15 million litres of wine a year. Founded in 1885, this year it celebrates its 140th birthday. It is best known for its reds, but also tends plantings of white varieties such as Graševina, Žilavka, Chardonnay, Traminac and Riesling. Tikveš once surprised us with Šipon, as they call the variety we know better as Moslavac, Furmint or Pušipel — and with a Šipon 1962 at that, of which the archive holds dozens of bottles, though it is no longer grown. 
Kutjevo and Kavadarci, by their initials, seem to summon the imperial and royal monarchy. K & K is short for the popular German phrase kaiserlich und königlich. That was the fond nickname for the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy from 1867 to 1918, because the Austrian emperor was at the same time the Hungarian king — and thus the Croatian one too. A reminder that Capital will also host a masterclass of Austrian Rieslings on festival day, 22 November. Which wines from the famed wineries along the Austrian stretch of the beautiful blue Danube sommelier and wine collector Krešimir Kožić will present, along with the practical details of the festival, prices and discounts, you can read here.
Cover photo: Max Griss on Unsplash
14 November 2025
