SERBIAN VITICULTURE FROM THE 19TH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT DAY
Authors: MARKOVIĆ Nebojša , PRŽIĆ Zoran 
Published: April 2023

In Europe, the period from the 17th to the 19th century was marked by scientific and industrial revolution, better traffic communication, which strongly influenced development of viticulture and wine markets. New varieties are introduced into viticulture, intensive working on hybridization, more intensive cultivation methods are applied with use of horses, distance between plants are changed and more modern stock are used. After liberation from the Ottoman Empire, Serbian viticulture is developing again. With arrangement of the principality and then the Serbian Kingdom, in the overall development of Serbia under the Obrenović family, a significant contribution was made by new vine plantation. Apart from the Danube regions, the areas under vines are located around the Kopaonik mountain, which separates southern Serbia from the Novo-Pazarski sandžak and the wine-growing centers such as Negotin, Požarevac, Smederevo, Kruševac, Niš and Šumadija as a separate region (area about 98,326 ha).

However, the development of viticulture in Serbia is stoped by the appearance of phylloxera. The territory of Serbia was affected by phylloxera starting in 1881, and by 1920 it had reached Metohija. In order to restore damaged vineyards, were formed vine nurseries (Smederevo 1882, Bukovo near Negotin 1886, Jagodina 1889, Aleksandrovac, 1891) where began production of rootstock and grafting of European vine varieties. Since then, for the first time, varieties such as Traminac, Chardonnay, Pinot blanc, Pinot noir, Gamay were introduced into Serbian viticulture.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by changing of royal dynasties, so after atending to Serbian throne, King Petar I Karađorđević (since 1903) form an endowment estate at Oplenac. King Petar I Karađorđević, and after them King Alexander, intensively participated in plantation of new vineyards, using planting material from nurseries from Smederevo and from France (1925). By 1935, the total area under vineyards amounted to 37.78,31 ha, of which 4/5 were under wine and 1/5 under table varieties. During the 2nd World War, Serbian vineyards was under significant damage due to the lack of conditions to bad cultivation in appropriate ways.

After the 2nd World War, viticulture in Serbia had several development stages. The first stage covers the period from 1945 to 1954 and is characterized by an extensive production level. The second stage, from 1954 to 1959, is characterized by vineyard with big inter-row distance of 2–2.5 m and greater mechanization using. The third stage, from 1959 to 1970, is characterized by vineyards with inter-row distance of 2.5 to 4 m. It is the period of intensive vineyards plantating. In the 1970, 106.000 ha belonged to individual sector, and 10.500 ha to the state (goverment) sector. In the 80-is and 90-is of the last century, it is period of the viticulture stagnation with significant reduction of vineyard area. The disintegration of the SFRY, wars that followed, sanctions and international isolation of Serbia and especially NATO bombing affected complete destruction of viticulture as a minor agricultural branch at that time. It is estimated that only about 20,000 ha under vine survived and could be maintained at the beginning of the XXI century. For the last twenty years, have been made efforts to restore Serbian viticulture. With a more modern approach, it started with the selection of clones of varieties mainly for producing of high quality wines. With the formation of smaller and medium-capacity wineries (from 100,000 to 500,000 bottles per year), the situation in viticulture and wine sector has changed significantly through the increase of areas under vines and the improvement of wine quality. Today there are around 360 registered wineries in Serbia.