The town of Valjevo lies in picturesque surroundings to the southwest of the capital Belgrade. The town and landscape impressed travellers almost 400 years ago, as the French consul Louis Gedoyn wrote about the town "pleasant for a great number of gardens" on his way to Damascus in 1624, and continued "I was served with excellent wines". Wine still plays a decisive role in the Valjevo area today, also and especially because of the Milijan Jelic Winery. Founded in 2002, it is one of the younger wineries in the country, but has long since made an outstanding name for itself. Today, the winery cultivates over 20 hectares of vineyards in the area around Vlajevo. Initially they experimented a little with cultivation, but in 2004 they decided to concentrate mainly on the indigenous Morava and Prokupac varieties. The vineyards are also planted with Chardonnay, Petka, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc for white wines and Pinot Noir and Merlot for red wines. The first wine, a Morava 2005, won the "White Wine Championship" at a wine fair in Novi Sad in 2006. The cellar contains all the modern equipment that is state of the art today for the production of high-quality wines. 3 white wines and 5 red wines, some of which are single-varietal and some of which are cuvées. Quite unusual for Serbia is a single-varietal Nebbiolo, which is likely to be a unique selling point of the winery. There is also a rosé, and with the "Morange", an orange wine made from the Morave variety, the current trend towards this style of wine is also taken into account. The winery also offers wine tastings for small and large groups in a tasting room that was only built in the 21st century. If you look at the almost incalculable number of awards that the wines have won in the Czech Republic, Burgundy and Italy, it is easy to see that the winery has arrived at the top of Serbia's wine scene.
