At A Glance
- Region
- Kosovo and Metohija
- Village
- Leposavić
- Main grapes
- Sauvignon Blanc, Solaris, and others from a 32-variety trial
- Signature wine
- Corvus (dry red)
- Defining feature
- Organic viticulture on former Banjska Monastery terroir, 450 to 550 m altitude
The Producer
Vinarija Lakićević is a family-owned winery in Leposavić, in the northern part of Kosovo and Metohija. The first vineyards went in the ground in 2013 on former Banjska Monastery land, where grapes had been cultivated since the early Middle Ages. To find which varieties suited the acidic soils and the altitude climate, the family planted 32 different grapes across the early years of the estate. The wines that came through that process are farmed organically and have won recognition at international competitions.
Place
The vineyards sit between 450 and 550 metres above sea level, where annual rainfall stays below 600 millimetres and cold nights are the norm through the growing season. Those cold nights slow ripening and preserve acidity, giving the white wines their firm spine and keeping the reds from feeling soft. The topography shifts across the estate from flat clay plots to rocky slopes, and the soils are acidic throughout. That combination of altitude, low water stress, and variable ground is what shaped the 32-variety trial: different grapes performed differently depending on which part of the property they occupied.
Wines
The range runs from aromatic whites through an oxidative-style amber to structured reds, with each bottle reflecting a different outcome from the estate's varietal experiments. Alcedo is a fresh white, pale straw with green tints, built around pear and pineapple aromas and designed to be drunk young. Parus is the Sauvignon Blanc, with varietal aromas that run from boxwood and tomato leaf to smoky notes. Solaris is the estate's most unusual wine: a straw-yellow white with amber tints, made in a style that allows some deliberate oxygen contact during ageing, giving the wine balsamic and dried-fruit character alongside medicinal herbs, with mint as the clearest note. This extended exposure to oxygen is what produces both the amber colour and the shift away from fresh fruit toward dried and resinous aromas. Corvus is the flagship red, a dry wine with silky tannins and a full range of red and black fruit on the nose, supported by cinnamon, laurel, and violet.
Final Word
Vinarija Lakićević shows what altitude and acidic soils can do in Kosovo and Metohija: organic grapes on land with a medieval vine-growing history, producing a range from sharp aromatic whites to a structured red, with the unusual Solaris sitting between them.