Croatia's "Olive Island"

                                          Brač is the third largest island in the Adriatic Sea

With more than a million olive trees, an Olive Oil Museum, the Olive Harvest Championship, the very first Olive Oil Cooperative in Croatia, and a three mile Olive Trail for tourists that passes through centuries old olive groves, there’s no wonder why the Croatian island of Brač (rhymes with watch) is appropriately named “the olive island.”  Located midway along the country’s 1,000 mile coastline, the island is 10 miles from the mainland city of Split. While olives are grown in many parts of Croatia, Brač is the nation’s largest olive grove.

                                  Centuries old wild trees & cultivated olive farms dot the island

It is believed that the ancient Greeks brought the first olive trees to the island.  Up until the 16^th century, however, there were no cultivated olive farms.  Instead, trees grew wild.  Recognizing the valuable commodity, the Venetian rulers passed laws in the 17th century to encourage planting of olive trees.  They also instituted edicts to protect the island’s olives:  anyone found harming a tree was banned from the island for ten years.  By the 18^th century, olive oil had become big business on Brač. 

                     Wine-Knows will tour an olive oil producer on their yacht trip in September

Brač’s olive oils are world-class.  The island’s unique geological and climatic conditions, in addition to hundreds of years of skills acquired by Brač’s olive growers, contribute to the quality of the oils produced.  Also, an olive variety only on Brač, oblica, further contributes to creation of the island’s distinctive oils.

                           An ancient olive press in the local museum shows how oil was made

Recently, olive oil from Brač was granted protection by the E.U.  This means that only olive oil made on the island of Brač can be called Brač.  Furthermore,  the extra virgin oil must contain a minimum of 80% of Brač’s indigenous olive variety oblica.   All bottles of the island’s oil display a special label showing its EU protected status. This label guarantees the consumer that this is the real-deal Brač oil, and not some knock-off from Algeria.

                       The EU label guarantees the authenticity of the product to the consumer

This September Wine-Knows will visit the island of Brač for an olive tasting.  The private yacht that Wine-Knows has leased has one last cabin for one or two persons available.  For more information about this Croatian yacht trip, consult our website,

https://www.wineknowstravel.com/croatia-itinerary/