Šember winery

A family that has been making wines for centuries

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Out of all Plešivica wineries, the one run by the Šember family is by far the most traditional and homely. Their vineyards occupy around 6 ha of south-southwest facing hills of Plešivica and Okić which are a 40-minute drive from Zagreb city center.

Several generations of Šembers worked the same land, before Zdenko and his wife Ivanka took over with their son Nikola, an agronomy engineer, and daughters Lucija and Klara who run their tasting house. You can find their bottles on wine lists of prestigious Croatian restaurants.

Zdenko jokes that they do not spend a lot of time in their cellars, since wine needs peace to mature. At Šember, they make interesting and beautiful wines out of Riesling, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir grapes. Their first sparkling wine was bottled in 1997 and their first amphora-aged wine in 2011.

If you want to visit them, best book in advance, since their wine-tasting facilities are limited to 30 people indoors and another 40 on the terrace. Expect homemade charcuterie and cheese, bread, and cakes.