Where the Wine Came First
What it means to stay on a working wine estate in Istria.
Istria has two grapes of its own: Malvazija, a white, and Teran, a red. Meneghetti, near Bale in the south of the peninsula between Rovinj and Pula, grows around 40,000 vines on the estate and farms further vineyards in northern Istria for its Malvazija, which it bottles as Meneghetti Malvazija and as a Black Label.
The dates explain the title. The estate is a 19th-century stancija, an Istrian farmstead of white stone, restored in the early 2000s, and the winery was founded in 2001. Today it makes thirteen wines, among them a Meneghetti White and a Meneghetti Red alongside the Malvazija, as well as olive oil from some 700 trees in four varieties.
Guests sleep in the old stancija itself, in Classic and Superior rooms of 28 m² or in Vintage rooms and suites behind the historic stone walls. Residences and villas, some with private pools, are spread across the estate between the vines.
The estate's wines are not only on the dinner list. In the Wine Lounge among the vines, you can book a flight of the estate's wines, a longer Connoisseur tasting or an olive oil tasting. In the evening at Meneghetti Restaurant & Bar, chef Ante Miletić cooks with vegetables from the estate's organic garden, and the list puts Meneghetti's own bottles beside Croatian and international ones.
From May to September, lunch moves outside to Oliveto, with tables under the olive trees and the estate's oil on them.
Meneghetti suits travellers who would choose a hotel for its wine list: the wines you taste in the afternoon come from vines a few minutes' walk from your room, and you can drink them again at dinner.
