Festival Graševine is one of the wine festivals that anchors the Slavonia & Croatian Danube calendar, drawing both local visitors and international wine travellers each year. It is held at Graševine Square in Kutjevo, in the heart of one of Croatia's most distinctive wine areas. It is an annual event with an established local audience and a consistent place in the regional calendar.
Features Night of Open Cellars allowing free tours of wine cellars. Open cellar weekends are the entry point of wine tourism for many visitors, giving direct access to producers who are otherwise hard to visit without prior arrangement. Most participating wineries offer free or low-cost tastings, with optional paid masterclass sessions, vineyard walks and food pairings. The atmosphere is informal and the focus is on direct producer contact rather than large-scale staged events. Visitors typically plan a route covering 3-5 wineries across a single day, often combining cellar visits with stops at local restaurants or food producers in the same area. The event functions both as a commercial opportunity for the wineries and as a community celebration, drawing returning visitors year after year. The event is organised by Town of Kutjevo / local wine associations, which sets the tone and direction of the programme each year.
Slavonia and the Croatian Danube in eastern Croatia form the country's largest wine region by area, producing the bulk of Croatian wine. The region is dominated by Graševina (Welschriesling), Croatia's most-planted grape, which produces a wide range of styles from crisp dry whites to late-harvest sweet wines. The Kutjevo zone in central Slavonia is the historic quality reference, with Kutjevački Podrum (founded 1232 by Cistercian monks) being one of Europe's oldest continuously operating wineries. The region also produces Traminac (Gewürztraminer), Pinot Sivi (Pinot Gris) and increasingly serious red wines from Frankovka (Blaufränkisch) and international varieties.
The 2026 edition is scheduled for June 2026 (TBC). Cost details are best confirmed directly with the organiser ahead of travel. Full programme, ticketing and updated information are published on the official site at Unknown. Visitors are advised to check directly with the organiser for the latest schedule, as festival programmes are sometimes updated close to the event date.
Slavonia is reached via Osijek airport with regional flights, or by car from Zagreb (3 hours) or Budapest (3 hours). The vineyard area centres on Kutjevo, with Đakovo (the historic cathedral town and Lipizzaner stud), Vukovar and Osijek as the main bases. The region pairs wine tourism with the Kopački Rit nature park (one of Europe's largest wetlands) and the Slavonian baroque architecture. Cuisine pairs the wines with kulen (the spicy paprika sausage that is the regional specialty), čobanac (the Slavonian shepherd's stew), freshwater fish from the Sava and Drava rivers, and the area's strong farmhouse cheese traditions.
