The story behind Vino Budimir is fascinating, and, to explain it, we need to travel back to the year 1878. Just outside the town of Aleksandrovac, Serbia, there was a small winery whose vineyards expanded up the neighboring hillsides. As has already been explained different kingdoms and fiefdoms of the Balkan Peninsula were constantly warring with one another. In this vein, the king from Belgrade was marching his troops south in 1878, and, as they were marching, they came upon this small winery outside Aleksandrovac. As they were passing by, the king asked the winemaker for something to drink and was presented with a glass from the winery’s cellars. The king was so taken with the drink that he ordered his troops stop and rest there for the night. Such was the winery’s hospitality and so good were the wines that the king proclaimed the winery to be his crown’s official winery. Thanks to phylloxera, only one vine remains from the original vineyard, but it sits atop a neighboring hill as if to guard the winery from any incursion. For this reason, they have dubbed the vine “The Guard.”
Today, the Vino Budimir winery is owned and operated by Aleksander Rashkovich. Vino Budimir makes a wine line of products from the oldest vineyards in our Balkan portfolio. We bring in Budimir’s Triada, Svb Rosa, Tamjanika, and Riesling. Triada gets its name from the Greek idea of trinity. In the case of Vino Budimir, this trinity is explained by the winery's motto: My family, my land, my wine. The Svb Rosa is named for an ancient Roman practice. Whenever a secret meeting was taking place, the organizers of said meeting would place a single rose on their doorway. Over the years, because of this practice, anything clandestine or hidden was referred to as being “sub rosa” or “under the rose.” This is a symbol that was eventually adopted by the Catholic Church who often carved five-petalled roses on confessionals to indicate that conversations would be kept a secret. In the Middle Ages, sub rosa indicated the same secretive nature, but it was expanded to include wine. Thus came the saying, “That which is said sub vino should remain sub rosa.” In the case of Vino Budimir’s wine, the name Svb Rosa has a double-entendre. It indicates that there is always a deeper, darker flavor lurking beneath the surface, but it also means that the winery keeps their winemaking regimen a well-guarded secret.
