PILATO WINES

STORY BEHIND - PILATO WINES

Pilato Family Farming is situated in the village Lašići, on the West coast of the Istria peninsula. In this family farming the production exists for already three generations. In previous years it dealt with the mixed production as most of the other farms such as agriculture, livestock farming and vineyard farming.

The production of grapes dates back in 1934 when Ivan Pilato (great-grandfather) planted a small vineyard which we today consider as the beginning. Around 1960 Končeto Pilato suddenly started to grow his wine production as he understood this is the agriculture product that sells best. In the nineties Eliđo Pilato took over his father's production and made greater investment in the machinery and technology and spreading of the vineyard. In 1994 he won the gold medal for "Malvazija Istarska" at the local festival "Vinistra" which encouraged him to lean towards higher quality production.

In the year 2002 we won the gold medal at the National Wine Festival "Vinovita" where our Chardonnay was declared as the best white Croatian wine. Today, the Pilato Family Farming has around 14 ha of the vineyard in cooperation, of which 70% of white varieties and 30% of red varieties. All vineyards are under the protection of the controlled wine origin. The cellar today accepts 100 000 litres of modern wine equipment. In the future we are planning to increase the vineyard to 20 ha and to build a new wine cellar with the latest technology in wine production. In Istria, the competition is every day growing stronger which is only an additional motivation for every year's improvement.