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Vinepair.com's list of European regions offering the best value for money placed Pošip and Maraština in the Balkans

Published: 18.02.2026

Pošip Maraština Autohtone sorte Prokupac
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Wines from the Balkan Peninsula, from Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Greece, from the Adriatic Sea through the mountains and valleys inland, today offer some exciting wines with the best price-quality ratio. Native grape varieties such as prokupac, marastina and pošip produce wines with character, characterized by terroir and often at surprisingly affordable prices, said Jelena Prodan, beverage director of the SMG Restaurants group, which manages six Chicago restaurants. This is part of a survey in which the American portal vinepair.com asked 17 sommeliers which European wine regions offer wines with the best price-quality ratio

Clearly, this is a lady with roots in our region, and she was the only one among those surveyed to mention Croatia. Even she did not single it out as a distinct region, however, but rather mentioned it as part of the Balkans. Still, she did name two truly exciting local varieties, the third one mentioned being Prokupac, but the problem is that she failed to specify where they are grown. Consequently, Americans reading this might easily end up looking for Maraština and Pošip in Serbia, and Prokupac in Greece.

According to Jelena's nominations, as well as those of her colleagues, northern Spain and Austria offer the best value for money. Catalonia, Galicia, the Basque Country, Penedès and even Corpinnat, which is part of Penedès, are Spain's good offer. Austria is generally highlighted as favorable, and the wine regions of Weinviertel, Burgenland, Kamptal and Styria are additionally singled out. Beaujolais and Languedoc-Roussillon are on the list from France, and Puglia and Sicily from Italy, in addition to wines from Etna. In general, according to American sommeliers, wine prices are favorable in Slovakia, Portugal and Germany. Obviously, they didn't really buy Mosel Rieslings, it seems.