A Croatian company has quietly built what is being called the most complete digital archive of global viticulture ever assembled — and wine lovers planning trips anywhere from Burgundy to Istria now have a new tool to play with.
M.G. Solutions, based in the Istrian town of Umag, launched WorldWineryMap.com this month, plotting more than 4.3 million vineyards and over 100,000 wineries across 90 countries on one interactive map. Croatia itself is well covered: over 53,000 vineyards and 680 wineries are on there, along with the country's four wine regions, twelve sub-regions and 72 official vineyard areas.
What sets it apart is the depth of data. Each parcel shows altitude (as a precise range, using up to 16 control points for larger sites), slope, exposure, soil type, geology and climate figures. Founder Matija Gavrilović says the team processed more than four million spatial polygons, drawing on the Copernicus GLO-30 satellite terrain model. The result is a map that doesn't just show where grapes grow today — it mathematically demonstrates how climate change is shifting the world's wine geography.
For travellers, the practical hook is geolocation. Search anywhere in the world and the map finds nearby wineries, then gives you directions straight to the estate door. Region boundaries come from official legal sources — in Croatia's case, the Ordinance on Viticulture — so you're looking at genuine appellations, not vague marketing zones. The coverage of 98,719 boundaries includes 2,815 formal wine regions and appellations plus 95,904 named vineyard sites, from Napa to theIstrian coast.
The launch comes at a rough moment for Croatian wine. Domestic production in 2025 hit just under 70 million litres — up 15.9% on 2024, which was the worst year in the country's history with less than 50 million litres after a climatically disastrous season. Producers face rising costs, softening consumption and stiff competition, and Croatia imports another 30 million litres to fill the gap.
Yet the country's wine credentials remain strong. Croatia counts 258 recognised grape varieties, 134 of them indigenous, though only about twenty are in serious cultivation today. Three varieties dominate: Plavac Mali, Graševina and Istrian Malvasia — Graševina alone accounts for roughly 44% of domestic wine turnover and covers 4,212 of the country's 16,399 hectares of vines. Istria County leads with 2,733 hectares under vine, ahead of Osijek-Baranja and Dubrovnik-Neretva.
The map has already drawn media attention in more than 25 countries, from the USA and Italy to Brazil, South Africa, India and New Zealand. For holidaymakers, the takeaway is simple: if you've ever wanted to build a wine-tasting route around altitude, soil and terroir rather than guesswork, this is now a genuinely useful starting point — and it makes Croatia's indigenous varieties a particularly rewarding corner to explore.
