Wine & Food Adventures
If you’re jonesing for a day of world-class food and wine, come hungry. From veal short rib baked in clay ovens, to grilled whole sea bream (orata), to byrek pastries and pickled produce, Albania serves up plates for all tastes. Throw in drinks, and you have a menu of fresh pomegranate or apple juice, wine blends from both familiar grapes and Albanian heritage ones, and raki, the national spirit of distilled grapes, plums, mulberries or whatever else grows around.
Even the best “traditional” cuisine is radical, in a way, though: The movement toward exacting quality, farm-fresh preparations and sustainable agriculture really only began in recent decades, after the fall of Communism. But farmers, winemakers, distillers and agrotourism trailblazers have never been more eager to showcase their terroir—and the options for diners and drinkers are blissfully daunting.
I have worked in the wine industry for 13 years, specifically as a magazine writer of everything from harvest reports to restaurant reviews. I’ve also spent months visiting farms, vineyards and eateries around Albania, and chowing down accordingly (a formidable undertaking, but it had to be done). Let me guide you through the delicious thicket of Albanian cuisine!
Eat, Drink and Be Merry (Tirana and Durrës; Single Day)
Breakfast and bubbly at Tirana’s top wine bar, an outpost of a Berat winery
Panoramic vineyard tour and tasting of wine made from grapes native to Albania, near Tirana
Fresh local seafood extravaganza at a top-flight waterfront spot in Durrës
Wine, raki and brandy tasting at Albania’s oldest and most iconic winery and distillery, in Durrës
Dinner, farm tour and wine tasting at a favorite farm-to-table restaurant, near Tirana
Return to Tirana
I often say it’s hard to find a bad meal here. But this tour highlights the best of the best in central Albania’s diverse dining and drinking. We start at the Tirana outpost of a Berat winery, which makes bubbly from the indigenous Pulës grape, then head west, through the hilly lowlands between the capital and the sea, where the climate, soils and enterprising, heritage-minded winemakers encourage Albania’s native grape varieties to thrive (below).
Once we reach the Adriatic, the main dish, of course, is fish, and one can savor crudos with oysters and five varieties of shrimp and prawn (top). A visit to the country’s biggest winery and distillery gives a glimpse into the country’s winemaking history back to pre-Communist times, including a tasting of wines and rakis (brandies). Dinner is a multi-course affair at a property on the vanguard of sustainable and permaculture farming, founded by a former minister of agriculture, or at a family estate that specializes in preparations of veal (below), overlooking a medieval hilltop fortress—your pick.
Wine and World Heritage (Berat; Single Day)
Leave from Tirana
Berat old city walking tour
Berat Castle visit, including the Onufri Museum
Wine tasting and tapas at one of the best and most innovative wineries in Albania
Vineyard and olive grove tour, followed by dinner, at a secluded farm in the foothills of Mount Tomorr
Return to Tirana
A postcard-perfect town and UNESCO World Heritage site, Berat bears the influences of its many centuries of occupants, but the most striking architectural heritage here is Ottoman, with mahogany-trimmed white houses terraced one above another up the hillsides on the banks of the Osum River.
Rising above the city is the kalaja, the “castle” atop the hill. Unlike a fortress or royal residence like Windsor Castle, the citadel at Berat contains a mini-town inside the walls; people still live here today amid the centuries’ worth of mosques, cisterns and churches, including the one celebrating Onufri, the most famous Albanian painter of Christian iconography.
The afternoon and evening will be devoted to eating, drinking and wandering the vineyards and farmland near the town, where some of Albania’s pioneers of top-quality agriculture continue to make and serve wine, olive oil, seasonal produce, byrek pastries and more from the fruits of their properties.
