Who makes it
Plantaže farms a single flat plain south of Podgorica that holds 2,310 hectares of vines in one unbroken block. No other winery in Europe owns a vineyard parcel this large. The company name carries the date 13 July 1941, the day Montenegro rose against Axis occupation, and that historical weight is built into every label.
Founded in 1963 as a state agricultural enterprise, Plantaže has grown into the dominant wine producer in the western Balkans, selling into more than 40 countries. Scale is its most obvious fact, but the range it has built around the indigenous Vranac grape is where the story gets interesting. Premijer Vranac is held seven years before release. That patience is not a boutique winemaker's choice; it is a decision by the largest producer in its country to withhold its best fruit from the market for most of a decade.
Where it grows
Ćemovsko polje is a wide Mediterranean plain lying just south of Podgorica, Montenegro's capital. The plain sits at low elevation, open to warmth from the Adriatic to the west while partly shielded by the Dinaric ranges to the north and east. Growing seasons run long and dry, with enough summer sun to push Vranac's naturally high sugar content higher still.
Vranac covers roughly 70 percent of the vineyard. The grape's thick skins hold dark pigment well in that heat, producing wines with a dense, purple-tinged colour that is characteristic of the variety at full ripeness. The Mediterranean climate also means that acidity, while present, is secondary to body and fruit weight, which shapes every tier of the range toward richness.
How it is made
The cellar
The harvest mobilizes 700 full-time employees and 1,000 additional seasonal workers across August and September, picking from a vineyard that runs to the horizon in every direction from the cellar buildings. Vranac's tight clusters and high sugar concentration require careful selection; the prestige tiers draw only from the best-performing blocks in the best vintages.
Three cellars organise the production. The old cellar in Lješkopolje, with a 3 million litre capacity, handles barrel ageing for the top wines. The new cellar at the edge of Ćemovsko polje, holding 28 million litres, serves as the production and company headquarters. A third facility at Šipčanik carries 2 million litres and doubles as an event venue. Combined capacity reaches 33 million litres.
What they make
The range covers around 40 wines drawn from 28 grape varieties, but Vranac drives everything. Three tiers define the red range.
The house Vranac is produced at high volume from Ćemovsko polje's full output: deeply coloured, aromatic, full-bodied, and high in alcohol, with a dark purple hue that signals the grape's pigment density. It is made to be approachable early and consumed within a few years of vintage.
Wines to try
First bottle
Start with Premijer Vranac. It is a deep, barrel-aged red from Vranac grown on Ćemovsko polje, held four years in French-dominant oak and three more in bottle before leaving the winery. In the glass it is full-bodied and firmly structured, with dried dark fruit, oak spice, and savory depth built over the long ageing. The tannin is present but integrated; the fruit has settled into complexity rather than sitting as primary freshness. Nothing in the range demonstrates what Plantaže has decided to do with its best fruit as clearly as this bottle, and nothing else shows Vranac at full maturity as directly.