Montenegrin rakija and wine

Vranac is Montenegro's indigenous red grape and the strongest argument its wine industry has — a dark, tannic wine from Lake Skadar and the Crmnica valley, where stony ground and a long sunshine count set it apart from anything nearby. Krstač, the indigenous white, does the same job from the other direction.

Rakija goes its own way: loza from grape pomace, kruna from pears, quince, herbal travarica and honey-infused medovača. Worth asking about: which fruit and which harvest, whether it was distilled in a copper still, and how long it rested. Rakija made from a producer's own fruit and rakija cut from bought spirit are not the same product, and a producer doing it properly will say so unprompted.