The award granted to Podrum Tolj is at the same time an award to all family farms in rural Herzegovina and to tourism professionals, as well as a strong incentive to everyone who lives and works there.

Wine cellar Tolj Brings an Award to Herzegovinian Winemaking and Tourism

Convinced that the rural areas of Herzegovina have great tourism value, the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Tourist Board nominated Podrum Tolj for the international award “Sunflower of Rural Tourism.” Among numerous submitted projects, Podrum Tolj won a Silver Charter in the Wine Tourism category, thereby confirming its value and successfully presenting the Herzegovinian wine region through its achievement.

Sunflower of Rural Tourism – The Sunflower Award

For the 13th time, the Croatian Association for Tourism and Rural Development, Klub članova Selo, awarded the Sunflower of Rural Tourism – The Sunflower Award in Bjelovar. The award ceremony took place on December 8 in the evening at the Bjelovar Cultural Center.

This year’s competition covered seventeen categories and three special categories. In addition to wine tourism, awards were given for: the best rural family farms, traditional rural households, modern rural households, traditional rural gastronomy, small family craft producers, rural tourism projects, rural museums and interpretation centers, cultural and historical events, gastronomic events, women in rural tourism, innovation projects, beekeeping tourism, and more. The event was supported by the majority of Croatian county prefects and mayors, as well as the highest representatives of the tourism sector in Croatia.

Podrum Tolj – Blatnica, Čitluk

Podrum Tolj is located in the village of Blatnica in the municipality of Čitluk. It was built on a beautiful clearing rising above the famous Čitluk field, offering views of the Broćno plateau and a chain of hills and mountains overlooking the Adriatic Sea.

The winery was founded in 2014 by spouses Josip and Suzana Tolj with the goal of producing grapes and wine from indigenous Herzegovinian grape varieties, Žilavka and Blatina. Today, Podrum Tolj owns 28,600 grapevines across 6 hectares, with plans to plant an additional 20,000 grapevines. Alongside the native varieties Žilavka and Blatina, the winery also cultivates the increasingly popular variety Trnjak.

The average annual wine production of Podrum Tolj is 40,000 bottles. Its key markets are Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, where most of its production is sold. The winery’s wines currently available on the market are: Tolj Blatina Ivaniš, Tolj Prozračac Trnjak, Tolj Rosé Domina Helena, Tolj Žilavka Kavalkada, and Tolj Žilavka Košara.