The scent of happiness from Cemovsko polje – ‘13 July – Plantaze’ started the production of peach brandy and introduced two new mixtures of wine from the largest vineyard in Europe

‘There are places in Montenegro where the nature didn’t have any doubts, where it offered modestly, hid and provoked its guest. All of this refers to Cemovsko polje. Until the 70s in the last century , it was a wold which was cultivated by ‘vranac’ grapes and today is a real joy for pickers and a gift of Mediterranean sun to enologists and wine lovers.’

This is how the story of the ’13 July- Plantaze’ company starts. The company started right on this location its more than half of a century long story about vine and grapes, a story about the pleasure that overwhelms you with each new sip.

As the largest wine and table grapes manufacturer in Montenegro and the region, with the annual production of vine grapes of about 22 million kilograms, ‘Plantaze’ produce about 17 million bottles per year.

From the overall amount, 43% stays in the domestic market, while the rest is exported into 35 countries. Bottles with ‘Plantaza’ label travel to the neighboring countries, European Union countries, Russia, China, Australia and all the way to Canada and the USA.

- Serbia’s market is our biggest export market, with the participation of about 35% in export. Countries which follow are Russia and China ,as markets in which we have high hope. Every year we renew our contracts with the local distributors – said for eKapija Dijana Milosevic, the manager of the Sector for wine tourism ‘Plantaze’.

From’ vranac’ to peach brandy’

13 July – Plantaze’ company was founded in 1963 and it deals in production of wine and table grapes, peaches , production and distribution of wine and grape brandies, farming of fish, catering industry and retail. The most important segment is naturally connected to grapes and wine. Despite the small size of Montenegro, ‘Plantaze’ owns one of the largest vineyard in one complex in Europe on over 2.310 hectares with over 11 million vines.

The special feature of ‘Plantaze’ company is its strategy based on domestic wine sorts, Vranac and Krstac. About 60% of vineyards is covered by ‘vranac’ and every year areas with this and the other sorts are significantly enlarged. As they say, international researchconfirm and support the course of focusing on domestic sorts and they also stress their role in current and future trends in the global wine market.

Two years after they produced two new wines named ‘Luca’ and ‘Vladika’ they announce two more labels.

-We are planning to introduce two more wines, which will be distributed to exclusive restaurants. These are the red wine ‘vranac’ in combination with ‘merlot’ and ‘petit verdot’, and the white wine will be combination of ‘chardonnay’ and’pinot blanc’, says our host.

The company has recently gone one step further and started production of peach brandy which has , as they say, came across excellent reactions of consumers and it is has been sold under the slogan ‘Smells like happiness’.

According to the assessment of ‘Plantaze’ technologists, the brandy will be a great refreshment in the market of fruit brandy brands, because all its characteristics( strength of taste and smell, technological quality) give a guarantee for success to this innovative product in the company’s offer. The brandy, as they add, is a product of the best quality peach selection during peach picking. Fermentation and distillation of peach is done by original technology in small copper brandy stills.

Dungeon for the wine of purple colour, dusk and velvet

’13 July – Plantaze ’ reaps the benefits from the other gifts of Mediterranean sun, land and water. The company owns a peach plantations on 85 hectares, a balm with grape surface and its own production of grape seedlings. Three wine cellars have the capacity of 30 million liters in which ‘the wine of purple colour, dusk and velvet lies still in darkness.

We have visited the most representative among them, Sipcanik cellar, which was opened in 2007 and since then it has been an important part of tourist offer of town Podgorica, but Montenegro aswel.

- Several thousands of guests visit us every year and we have up to four organized tours on a daily basis. Most of these visits are realized in cooperation with tourist agencies, says for eKapija Dijana Milosevic, the manager of the Sector for wine tourism ‘Plantaze’.

The cellar is situated on about 30 meters underground. It is a 356 m long, 13.5 m wide and 7 m high tunnel and the temperature is constant, between 17 and 19 degrees. The humidity of air is from 70 to 80%.

The cellar takes 7000 m2 and there are 2 million liters of wine.

Our hosts say that the cellar is particularly interesting for tourist, due to the fact it was a military facility, to be more precise it was a plane hangar until the 1999. After the bombing, they say, it took them several years to do necessary examination and start the reconstruction in which was invested more than 2 million EUR.

There are now a collection of wines with 28.000 bottles of wine up to 10 years , 200 m2 tasting room and a specialized shop.

The cellar is also opened for individual visitors, so that anyone can visit it upon a request, taste wine or enjoy the pleasure of eating and drinking in this impressive place.
For individual visits tourists have at their disposal two types of meals charged 10 and 30 EUR and a vineyard tour included in the price.

Processing of wine grapes and production of wine and brandies are done at the other two wine cellars ‘Cemovsko polje’ and ‘Ljesko polje’ capacity of 310.00 hectoliters.

Finance

Last year’s net profit of ‘Plantaze’ of 1.2 mil EUR will remain undistributed that is, it will not be paid through dividend to the shareholders, stated recently executive company manager, Verica Maras.

The company realized 27.64 mil EUR of revenue last year, which is 1% more compared to 2013.

On the same occasion, Maras stated that during the time of crisis, for the last seven years, the overall income of the company was 226 mil EUR, that is, 32,3 million.

Jelena Đelić

13. Jul-Plantaže AD Podgorica

13. Jul Beograd

13 Jul Plantaže

Ćemovsko polje

vranac

krstač

wine prodution

vineyards

Dijana Milošević

wine tourism

Luča

Vladika

merlot

petit verdot

chardonnay

šardone

pinot blanc

peach brandy

cellar Šipčanik

Lješko polje

grape brandy

grapes

Verica Maraš