4-Day Herzegovina & Pelješac Wine Tour

Four days along a single limestone spine, from the Neretva valley to the Adriatic. Herzegovina's wine is grown on rock — in places the vineyards were cut out of bare karst because there was no soil to plough — and that constraint produces a white with a mineral edge that exists nowhere else.

This journey follows the geology southwest until it meets the sea: Mostar, the Brotnjo plateau, Stolac, Trebinje, and the terraced slopes of Pelješac. Seven cellars, two UNESCO sites, one continuous rock.

Five grapes, one limestone spine.

• Žilavka — the white, and Herzegovina's calling card. Around 60% of the region's production. Crisp, mineral, citrus and stone fruit, dry.

• Blatina — the red, roughly a quarter of production. Full-bodied and dark-fruited, with an austerity its Croatian neighbours don't have. It cannot fruit without another variety planted beside it, which shapes how every grower here plans a vineyard.

• Trnjak — nearly extinct a generation ago, now recovering through a handful of producers.

• Vranac — "black horse". Arrived in southern Herzegovina under Austria-Hungary. Big, tannic, long-lived, and what Trebinje is known for.

• Plavac Mali — Pelješac. On the steep south-facing slopes above Potomje it becomes Dingač, Croatia's first protected appellation, designated in 1961.

You unpack twice, not four times: two nights in Mostar, one in Trebinje. The second day runs out of Mostar and back, so there is no packing in the middle of the journey.

The journey runs in both directions — Sarajevo to Dubrovnik, or Dubrovnik to Sarajevo. The content is identical. Book whichever matches your flights.