About winery

The Budinšćak family from Malunje has upheld a winemaking, viticultural, and cellar-keeping tradition for over two hundred years. At the end of the 19th century, Mijo Budinšćak elevated this legacy to a new level. As the long-time mayor of the municipality of Sveta Jana and a prominent vintner, he owned nearly 60,000 vines of high-quality and table grape varieties such as Portugizac, Lovrijenac, Frankovka, Kraljevina, Šipelj, Graševina, and Yellow Muscat, from which he produced renowned wines. From Yellow Muscat and other varieties, he crafted a wine named “Muškatel”—a name preserved in the family for over a century, although today the base of Muškatel is Muscat Ottonel. In 1928, Mijo was awarded a gold diploma at the first wine exhibition and fair in Zagreb, confirming the excellence of his wines. He passed on his passion to his descendants, especially his grandson Janko, a graduate agricultural engineer and the first certified enologist in the Jastrebarsko region. Janko enhanced and expanded the family wine production, working as chief enologist at “Jaska vino” for nearly four decades until 1984. Through his dedication, he contributed to the growth of both the quality and quantity of production, as well as the planting of new vineyards and construction of cellars. Thanks to his efforts, wines from the Jaska region gained recognition across the former Yugoslavia and beyond. He passed on his knowledge to his sons, Velimir and Mladen, and later to his grandsons Ratimir and Zvonimir. Today, the Budinšćak family owns a wine cellar with a capacity of 30,000 liters—20,000 of which are held in traditional oak barrels, with the remainder in stainless steel tanks. The cellar is located in the family manor house from 1869, which also features an old Croatian wine press from 1871. To maintain stable temperatures in the above-ground cellar, the southern wall is protected by three archways and 80 cm-thick walls, preventing direct sunlight and temperature fluctuations. The nearby vineyards, situated on about two hectares of land, include around 8,000 vines on south and southwest-facing slopes at 250 meters above sea level. The varieties cultivated include Green Silvaner (planted in 1952, renewed in 2012), Muscat Ottonel, Graševina, Kraljevina, Šipelj (1958), and Rhine Riesling (2005). These yield high-quality wines such as Green Silvaner, Muškatel, Rhine Riesling, and a white Cuvée. Since 1992, the family has been bottling and selling their wines under their own label with controlled designation of origin, preserving heritage and tradition in every drop.