City · Berat
Berat
The 'city of a thousand windows': an Ottoman hill town under a still-inhabited castle, UNESCO-listed since 2008.
- Signature white
- Shesh i Bardhë
- Signature red
- Kallmet
- Main regions
- Berat, Tirana-Durrës, Lezhë, Shkodër, Përmet, Korçë
- Note
- Arrange visits in advance; most producers are small
In plain language
Albania makes wine from grapes that grow almost nowhere else — Shesh i Bardhë, Shesh i Zi, Kallmet, Debinë. Most wineries are small and family-run, and many welcome visitors.
Simple explanation
Albania makes wine from grapes that grow almost nowhere else — Shesh i Bardhë, Shesh i Zi, Kallmet, Debinë. Most wineries are small and family-run, and many welcome visitors.
On this page
The grapes
- Shesh i Bardhë — white, from the Tirana-Durrës hills; the country's signature white.
- Shesh i Zi — its red counterpart from the same area.
- Kallmet — deep-coloured northern red from Lezhë and Shkodër; related to Hungary's Kadarka.
- Debinë — white, from Përmet in the south.
- Vlosh — red, from the Vlorë area.
- Serinë — an old southern white.
Where to go
Berat and the Tirana-Durrës hills have the largest concentration of visitable wineries. Lezhë is the centre for Kallmet. Përmet works well combined with the Vjosa and the Bënjë thermal springs. Korçë has the brewery rather than the wineries.
What to expect
Most producers are small. Tastings are informal and usually need to be arranged in advance rather than dropped in on. Prices are low by western European standards and quality is uneven — which is normal for a wine industry rebuilt from a collectivised base in one generation.
Connected subjects
Related subjects
Guide
Eating in Albania
What to order, where the regional differences are, and what a meal actually costs.
Drink
Albanian Wine
A wine culture running back to Illyrian times, rebuilt after 1990 around native grapes.
Drink
Shesh i Bardhë and Shesh i Zi
Albania's signature white and red grapes, grown mainly around Tirana and Durrës.
Sources
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