Kosovo · Unspecified

StoneCastle Vineyard & Winery, Bernjaka, Rahovec, Kosovo

Family-owned estate winery in Bernjaka, Rahovec, working 700 hectares of clay-limestone vineyards between 330 and 550 metres in the Rahovec Valley.

The producer

StoneCastle Vineyard & Winery stands in Bernjaka, Rahovec, at the site of NBI Rahoveci, a large Yugoslav state winery founded in 1953. The Gecaj family acquired it in 2006 and renamed it Stone Castle, linking a substantial estate vineyard base to family ownership and wines made in the Rahovec Valley.

Its 700 hectares run across hilly and mountainous ground, with clay-limestone soils and a 220-metre spread in elevation. That scale gives the range room to move from fruit-led Cabernet Sauvignon and varietal Vranç to reserve and Owner’s Choice wines, where oak and tannin take a more central role.

Known for

Estate wines from 700 hectares of clay-limestone vineyards in Kosovo’s Rahovec Valley, spanning Cabernet Sauvignon, Vranç, reserve wines and Owner’s Choice bottlings.

Notable facts

The story

The Return To Rahovec

Rrustem Gecaj left communist Yugoslavia in 1974, first moving to Italy and then to Canada. In 1976 he received a US visa and settled in New York City, where he worked in restaurants before entering real-estate investment. In 2006, the Gecaj family acquired the former NBI Rahoveci winery in Bernjaka. The business had started in 1953 as a large state-run winery built by Yugoslavia’s government. After the acquisition, the family renamed it Stone Castle, and the Rahovec winery began releasing estate wines under the new family-owned name.

From the atlas

StoneCastle Vineyard & Winery, Bernjaka, Rahovec, Kosovo

At A Glance

StoneCastle Vineyard & Winery is a family-owned estate producer in Bernjaka, Rahovec, Kosovo. Its 700 hectares of vines run through the Rahovec Valley between 330 and 550 metres, so the wines begin with fruit from one large, varied estate rather than a small single-vineyard holding.

The present-day label dates from 2006, when the Gecaj family acquired the former NBI Rahoveci winery and renamed it Stone Castle. The range runs from fruit-led Cabernet Sauvignon and varietal Vranç to reserve wines and Owner’s Choice bottlings, with the 2017 Owner’s Choice red noted for fine oak and silky tannins.

The Producer

StoneCastle works from Bernjaka P.N., Rahovec, at a winery whose earlier life began in 1953 as NBI Rahoveci, a large state-run operation built by Yugoslavia’s government. That scale still matters to the bottle: StoneCastle’s estate wines come from a substantial Rahovec vineyard base, while the Gecaj family name now sits behind the winery that makes them.

The estate model gives the wines a firm geographic starting point. Cabernet Sauvignon, Vranç and the reserve tiers are not presented as detached labels; they are wines made under one family’s ownership from vines spread across the valley around the winery.

Place

Rahovec is the setting for StoneCastle’s vineyards and cellar, with Bernjaka as the winery address. The Rahovec Valley holds the estate’s 700 hectares, so a StoneCastle label points to a broad local growing area rather than to a named village appellation or a single classified site.

Altitude ranges from 330 to 550 metres across those holdings. That spread is a practical part of the estate’s wine character: parcels do not all sit at the same height, and the winery has fruit from hilly and more mountainous ground to shape its Cabernet, Vranç and reserve bottlings.

Soil And Site

StoneCastle describes a clay-limestone soil mix over hilly and mountainous terrain. Clay can hold water while limestone brings a stony component to the rooting environment, making the vineyard ground a more useful guide to the estate than a generic description of Kosovo wine.

The important physical fact is the combination of scale and variation. Seven hundred hectares, a 220-metre elevation span and mixed terrain mean the fruit behind the wines comes from a landscape with more than one exposure and growing position, even when the bottle carries the single StoneCastle name.

Story

The winery’s story begins with an institution rather than a boutique cellar. NBI Rahoveci was built in 1953 as a state winery; in 2006, the Gecaj family acquired it and put Stone Castle on the label, turning the former operation into a family-owned estate-wine business.

The new name refers to Kosovo’s traditional kullas, stone tower houses, many of which were destroyed during the Kosovo War. In the glass, that historical change is most plainly encountered through the current range: a former state winery now releases Cabernet, Vranç, reserve wines and Owner’s Choice bottles under a family label.

Vineyards And Cellar

StoneCastle calls its wines estate wines, and the vineyard scale gives that claim substance. Fruit comes from 700 hectares in the Rahovec Valley, so the cellar’s work begins with grapes grown across the producer’s own clay-limestone sites rather than with an anonymous regional blend.

The winery stands in Bernjaka, close to the estate that supplies it. This link between vineyard and cellar is especially relevant for the range’s different levels: a fruit-driven Cabernet can show an immediate, straightforward side of the estate, while the Owner’s Choice red takes a more oak-shaped, tannin-led direction.

Wines

The range has a clear progression. Cabernet Sauvignon provides the accessible, fruit-driven red; varietal Vranç gives a second route through the estate’s red wines; reserve bottlings add another tier; and Owner’s Choice sits at the top end of the named range supplied here.

The 2017 Owner’s Choice red is the key structural contrast. Fine oak and silky tannins put wood, texture and grip at the centre of that wine, whereas the standard Cabernet is framed around fruit. The Owner’s Choice line also includes a 2019 Chardonnay, showing that the upper tier is not limited to red wine.

In The Glass

Start with the Cabernet Sauvignon’s fruit-led profile: it is the direct, less oak-forward side of the range, where fruit is the main point of contact on the palate. That makes it useful beside the Owner’s Choice 2017 red, whose fine oak changes the texture and whose silky tannins bring a smoother, more shaped grip through the finish.

The 2019 Owner’s Choice Chardonnay offers a white-wine counterpoint within the same tier and received a Silver Medal and 79 points at the 2023 London Wine Competition. Across the named wines, the most useful comparison is therefore not a vague house style but the movement from fruit-led Cabernet to oak-and-tannin red, with Chardonnay carrying the Owner’s Choice name into white wine.

A Bottle To Understand It

Choose the 2017 Owner’s Choice red. It is a red from StoneCastle’s upper named tier, and its fine oak and silky tannins make the wine’s structure easy to locate: oak shapes the flavour and texture, while the tannins carry a smooth grip into the finish. It also places the old Rahovec winery, the Gecaj family’s 2006 acquisition and the estate’s current range in one bottle without requiring a survey of every label.

Anecdote

Rrustem Gecaj left communist Yugoslavia in 1974. He first moved to Italy and later to Canada; after receiving a US visa in 1976, he settled in New York City, worked in restaurants and then entered real-estate investment. Three decades after leaving, his family acquired the former NBI Rahoveci winery in 2006. The business had begun in 1953 as a large state-run winery, and the family renamed it Stone Castle when they took it over. The sequence runs from a departure in 1974, through work in New York, to a winery in Bernjaka carrying a new family name on its bottles.

Final Word

StoneCastle is worth seeking out for the way a large Rahovec estate becomes a legible set of bottles: fruit-driven Cabernet Sauvignon, varietal Vranç, reserve wines and an Owner’s Choice red shaped by fine oak and silky tannins. Behind them are 700 hectares of clay-limestone vineyards and a winery remade under family ownership in 2006.

Sources