Former Yugoslavia is one of the oldest wine-growing countries in Europe. The Phoenicians already brought in around 1200 BC They planted vines from their native land (today's Lebanon) as well as their colonies from Cyprus and Crete and planted them on the Dalmatian Adriatic coast. Greek colonists cultivated wine from the 7th century BC on the Istrian and Dalmatian coast near Trogir and on some (now Croatian) islands such as Korčula, Hvar and Vis. When the Romans conquered the area in the 2nd century AD, they already found and developed an extensive wine culture. Emperor Probus, which came from Illyria (now Croatia), promoted viticulture. At 1000 BC conquered Venice the coastal area. In the 14th century, large parts of the former Yugoslavia came under Turkish rule and Islamic rule for centuries alcohol ban viticulture was severely impaired. Many vineyards had to be destroyed for religious reasons and were in the 19th century by the Phylloxera disaster destroyed.
The today's Slovenia (Krain) belonged from 1335 and the majority of today's Croatia from 1699 to 1918 to Austria-Hungary. Viticulture is still influenced by it today. Until the change in 1991, the total vineyard area totaled 244,000 hectares, in 1990 of which 5.95 million hectoliters of wine were produced. The events of the war in the 1990s broke Yugoslavia into seven independent states. First obtained Bosnia Herzegovina. Croatia. Northern Macedonia and Slovenia self-employment. The remaining state was renamed Serbia-Montenegro in 2003. After a 2006 referendum was also Montenegro a separate state and the remaining part Serbia renamed. The formerly autonomous Serbian province Kosovo finally proclaimed itself independent in February 2008.
