DeMar Vina

Approaching wine in Croatia’s continental north means leaving behind the coastal shorthand that dominates many travel conversations. The tone here is quieter: rolling vineyard country, cool-climate whites, and family-scale cellars working with grapes that carry regional identity rather than international gloss. DeMar Vina belongs to that inland register, where Graševina and Rhenish Riesling matter more than postcard scenery, and where a small producer can enter the conversation quickly if the wines test well beyond the county line.

Cool-climate whites from the Ludbreg hills

The Ludbreg wine hills sit within Croatia’s Central Continental wine culture, a zone better understood through acidity, aromatics and early-drinking precision than through weight or oak. Graševina, Rhenish Riesling and Muscat Ottonel form the useful frame here. They are not incidental varieties; they are the language of the region, and DeMar Vina’s focus on still white wines keeps the cellar aligned with the terrain rather than chasing a broader portfolio for its own sake.

That concentration has produced measurable recognition. Graševina 2020 received a gold medal and 96 points at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2022, while Rhenish Riesling 2020 has been assessed at 90 points in one evaluation and 88 points at Decanter World Wine Awards 2021. Muscat Ottonel 2021, recorded at 87 points, rounds out a picture of a cellar working in a narrow but coherent lane. Across Decanter cycles from 2020 to 2024, the tally reaches 14 medals: 4 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze.

For travellers building a Croatian wine itinerary, the point is not that Sveti Ur replaces the better-known coastal and Slavonian routes. It adds a different register. Continental Croatia’s white-wine tradition rewards drinkers who care about site expression, freshness and varietal clarity, and DeMar Vina gives that tradition a recent, award-tested example rather than a heritage-house narrative.

A young cellar in an old wine culture

Ludbreg’s wine culture has deeper roots than this winery’s timeline. The annual Vincekovo exhibition of young wines in Ludbreg is described as the largest exhibition of young wines in Croatia, which matters because it shows the local market’s appetite for wines judged early, publicly and competitively. The winery’s position as the youngest winery in the Ludbreg hills places it in a useful tension: new enough to be read as a modern entrant, but operating inside a community where young wines are already part of the regional rhythm.

The ownership is associated with Mario and Dejan, but the more interesting editorial point is not biography. It is speed. A winery opened in 2020, working at small production scale, has already built its reputation around results from international judging rather than cellar-door theatre. In premium travel terms, that makes the visit more specialist than polished: the appeal lies in seeing a compact continental producer whose reputation is tied to medal-winning whites, not a fully built hospitality complex.

The style cues point in the same direction: quiet, rustic and small-scale. This is not the format for travellers seeking a long lunch built around food pairings, nor for groups expecting a large tasting infrastructure. The better fit is the visitor interested in Croatian white varieties, the Ludbreg hills, and how Graševina can carry a regional identity outside the country’s more familiar wine narratives.

How to place it in a Sveti Ur itinerary

The winery is walk-in friendly, which lowers the barrier for curious travellers passing through Sveti Ur, though the experience should be approached as a focused wine stop rather than a broad hospitality programme. The winery is marked as small, quiet, not oriented to groups, and without food-pairing or outdoor-seating signals. That makes it stronger for solo exploration or wine education than for a social afternoon built around extras.

Price positioning sits at $$, and the practical value is clear: a compact producer with Decanter credentials in a region where white wines define much of the local conversation. First-timers to Croatian continental wine get a concise introduction to Graševina and Rhenish Riesling; repeat visitors get a more specific read on how the Ludbreg hills are producing award-recognised bottles in the current decade.

For broader planning around the city, use Our full Sveti Ur wineries guide alongside Our full Sveti Ur restaurants guide, Our full Sveti Ur hotels guide, Our full Sveti Ur bars guide and Our full Sveti Ur experiences guide. For a wider Croatia and regional wine map, continue with Adzic in Kutjevo, Ante Sladić Vino in Skradin, Arman Marijan Winery in Vizinada, Bakovic in Supetar, Baraka Winery in Sibenik, Bastian in Buje, Bastijana in Hvar, Belje Podrumi in Darda, »der Steiner« Hans Steiner in Podersdorf am See and & Handwein in Mannheim.