Stuff of dreams Josie Clarke
Fills up on food and wine, Dubrovnik style
Off-season, after the summer holiday rush, Dubrovnik’s deep blue Adriatic is peaceful but still warm enough to swim in, and its white pebble beaches edged with pine trees remain inviting.
But the magnificent Unesco-protected Old
Town offers more than just a beachside break. It is a glamorous base for wine and food lovers with experiences on its doorstep, ranging from oyster farm dining to home cooking with local families.
We arrived on a Friday evening to the Hotel Excelsior, a stone’s throw from the city walls and a favourite of royalty and Game of Thrones stars.
To the sound of waves directly beneath the floor-to-ceiling windows, guests kick off the evening with cocktails. It’s fine preparation for the fine-dining extravaganza at the Excelsior’s Sensus restaurant, which pairs local delicacies such as grilled squid with little-known but superb Croatian wines.
The pedestrianised Old Town is so close we could take a late evening stroll through the medieval gates and into its illuminated palazzi, elegant baroque churches and main streets, lined with bars and luxury stores too.
But when the sun rises over Lokrum islet ( ferries run every 15 minutes from the Old Town), it’s time to really explore.
Croatians are proud of their
oysters, so we headed an hour up to the Peljesac peninsula and Mali Ston Bay, where we were transported by a small boat out to a pontoon set up with stoves and tables.
Our hosts greeted us with a welcome shot of grappa – we were informed it would be rude not to partake, 10.30am or not – before we watched them haul mussels and oysters straight out of the sea. The oysters were opened before us and sprinkled with lemon juice and we all agreed they were the most delicious we’ve ever eaten. We continued on through
the gentle vine-clad hills to the family boutique Saints Hills winery. Visitors can while away the afternoon over a five-course tasting menu with matching wine, and we dined on calamari risotto, beef cheek, cheese and at least two desserts, while adding to the day’s bottle count considerably.
All ingredients are fresh and local, with veg and spices grown in their own garden and dishes tend to follow Dalmatian traditional recipes with a little twist. We came away with a bottle of the Saints Hills Dingac 2016, a big winner for the vineyard at international competitions.
Everywhere we went, family was at the heart of life. We travelled inland for 45 minutes to the lush Konavle Valley and Kameni Dvori, where the Mujo family proudly traces its ancestors back to the 16th century, and live as an extended group of 19.
We were welcomed into the home, with a shot of grappa, of course, and introduced to matriarch Stane and her daughter-in-law Katarina, who informed us we were cooking our own dinner – bread from scratch, chicken soup with pasta and vegetables, and cake to finish. And wine, obviously... rather a lot of it. We wandered around the extensive garden, picking peppers, tomatoes, herbs and figs, before we visited
the wine shed, where we got an early tasting of their Malvasia, a Konavle indigenous grape variety.
Cooking with Stane is a joyous experience, standing side by side in her kitchen as she shows you how to make the meals handed down from generation to generation. Dessert was padispanj, a sponge cake known as bread of Spain, and our hosts presented us with its ideal match – a sweet wine made of Malvasia grapes.
Back at the Excelsior, we walked for a minute along the cliff to Villa Agave, a private residence of such stunning beauty and exclusivity Francis Ford Coppola considered it his Dubrovnik home from home, and Harrison Ford was a recent guest with his family.
The villa is part of the Excelsior, and we ended our weekend with a seafood feast on one of its five stone terraces. Inevitably, we raised a glass to that...
Cooking with her, side by side in her kitchen, was a joyous experience