Decanter 2025: Historic success for Croatian winemakers with 386 medals won

Croatian wines continued their great streak at the world's most prestigious wine competition, the Decanter World Wine Awards 2025, winning a total of 386 medals, including 14 gold, one platinum and 255 silver medals. This is a historic result that surpasses last year's performance and confirms Croatia's increasingly strong international position on the world's wine map.

The most attention this year was attracted by the platinum award that went to Benvenuti wineries for dessert wine San Salvatore Muscat from the 2021 vintageAlong with him, gold medals also went to prominent Croatian winemakers, including Testament for Plavac Mali 2018, Galić for Pošip Dalmatian Ego 2023, as well as the Bernobić, Ferenac, Fiolić, Hvar Hills, Kozlović, Franković, Tasovac, Fakin, Zure and Casa Boschi wineries for various editions of Malvasia, Maraština, Merlot and Syrah.

For comparison, at Decanter 2024, Croatia won 11 gold medals and a total of 364 awards, which means that this year's results are better in all categories. In addition to the increase in the number of gold medals, it is important to highlight the record number of silver medals and the overall increase in the number of awarded wines. This continuous growth confirms that domestic winemakers are not only maintaining quality, but also systematically raising it.

The placement of Croatian wines in the internationally respected category "Best Value Gold", where wines under 15 British pounds that demonstrate exceptional quality are awarded. It is in this category that Croatia has won several awards, further confirming that our winemakers know how to produce wines that are not only top-notch, but also competitively priced on the world market.

Croatia among the top 10 wine countries in the world

At the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) 2025, Croatia positioned itself as 8th wine country in the world according to the number of medals won. As we mentioned, a total of 386 medals, which includes 1 platinum, 14 gold, 255 silver and 116 bronze. This impressive figure places Croatia just behind major producers such as France, Italy and Spain, and above countries such as Australia, Portugal and South Africa, according to the medal rankings available on DWWA.

Top wine is increasingly becoming an ambassador of the destination and a key element of the experience of Croatia, especially in the context of enogastronomic tourism, which is gaining more and more importance. The number of awards won in different regions, from Istria and Dalmatia to the continent, confirms the geographical diversity, but also the potential for the development of tourism outside the classic seasonal trends.

Wines are becoming more than just products. They are an invitation. Every gold medal, every platinum shine in a bottle, every certificate won... these are tickets to enter a new market, to attract new guests, to spread the story of Croatia, which knows how to tell an experience. Decanter medals are not only professional recognition, but also a tool for strategic development. If we know how to use the momentum, Croatian wine can be the key to year-round tourism. Value-added tourism. If we talk about export, of course there is always the question of quantity, but it is precisely through tourism that wines have added value, both for the guest and for the winemakers. 

These results confirm once again: Croatian wines are no longer a surprise, they have become an expectation.

They say that tourism begins with a glass of wine. If so, Croatia is building a bridge between terroir, authentic experience and economic growth. Medals are just the beginning, systematic investment in communication, cooperation and branding is needed. Then every name on the label will be an ambassador of the Croatian story.

Decanter 2025 once again shows that we are up to the challenge of global competition. The next step must be for a global audience to experience it.

See the full list of award-winning Croatian wines at: Decanter 2025.