There are places that explain Baranja better than any brochure. Sunken lanes — surduks — ringing with song and laughter, cellars that remember generations of winemakers, home-grown flavours, and a glass of wine drunk in the best of company. That is exactly Vinatlon, an experience of Baranja that this year too runs over two days, 29 and 30 May, in Karanac and Zmajevac.
This year’s Vinatlon brings wine in all its finest guises: through expert judging, workshops, tastings, a wine table, the Zmajevac cellars, local produce, music and the entertainment that has drawn visitors to Baranja for years. Friday is reserved for Karanac and an evening of champion wines with a concert by Goran Karan, while on Saturday the whole story moves to the wine roads of Zmajevac, where Vinatlon closes with a grand concert by Nina Badrić in the Reformed church surduk.
The overture to the event has already taken place through the Šampion Dunava (Danube Champion) wine judging, at which wines from the Croatian Danube region, neighbouring Villány and Fruška Gora were assessed. This year wine journalists made a special contribution to the selection, choosing the Journalists’ Graševina and underlining the importance of a variety that is one of the strongest wine symbols of this region. The winners of the champion titles will be announced during the Friday ceremony in Karanac.
The programme at the Karanac Interpretation Ethno Centre begins on Friday, already from 10 a.m., with the conference Iter Vitis: The Wine Circle of Heritage and Tourism, devoted to connecting wine tradition, heritage and the tourist experience.
The afternoon is reserved for wine workshops, designed for all who wish not merely to taste wine but to get to know it better.
From 3 to 5 p.m., Winery Szabo holds the workshop “The Black Diva of Baranja,” a vertical tasting of the Merlot variety. Through different vintages, participants will come to know the character, evolution and expressiveness of one of Baranja’s most recognisable red wines. In the same slot, from 3 to 5 p.m., Vina Gerštmajer present the workshop “Sweet Baranja,” devoted to Baranja’s late harvests and to wines in which the ripeness of the grapes, the winemaker’s patience and the distinctiveness of the Baranja terroir can all be recognised. For those who like to pair wine with art, Winery Horvat organises the “Sip & Paint” workshop from 4 p.m. Two hours of wine, painting and the relaxed Baranja atmosphere are intended for everyone who wants to create their own memento of Vinatlon.
The awards ceremony for the Šampion Dunava judging begins at 6:30 p.m., and at 7:30 p.m. the Šampion Dunava wine table follows, with a limited number of places and an entry fee. The evening ends with a concert by Goran Karan at 8:30 p.m.
The Saturday programme unfolds on the wine roads of Zmajevac, where from 10 a.m. the Fišijada (fish-stew cook-off) by LD Lovac Zmajevac and the Baranja kettle begin. At 12 noon the Šampion Dunava workshop is held, for which prior registration is likewise required.
From 2 p.m. Zmajevac becomes the heart of Vinatlon: visitors can look forward to a fair of local produce and crafts, a music programme, socialising in the surduks, cellar tours and wine tastings in a setting that draws you to Baranja once and brings you back regularly.
A particularly fun part of the Saturday programme is the Bačvatlon, which begins at 5:30 p.m. This is a race in which teams of two compete in rolling a barrel to the finish, while the crowd cheers, photographs and very seriously assesses the pushing technique. Everyone who rolls a barrel over the line wins a bottle of wine, while the winning team is awarded the grand prize — 12 bottles of wine. The number of teams is limited, and registration is mandatory.
The grand finale of Vinatlon belongs to Nina Badrić, whose concert begins at 8:30 p.m. in the Reformed church surduk.
Registration is mandatory for the wine workshops, the Šampion Dunava wine table and the Bačvatlon, and places are limited. All the information about this year’s Vinatlon is available at:
https://tinyurl.com/Vinatlon2026
The last weekend of May is the ideal time to come to Baranja, stroll the wine roads, meet the winemakers, taste the finest wines, sing along with Goran Karan and Nina Badrić, cheer at the Bačvatlon and carry home a memory that will last far longer than the last poured glass. Come to Karanac and Zmajevac on 29 and 30 May. Come to Vinatlon 2026 — because Baranja is best experienced live.
