Wine - The tradition

The tradition of wine making and grape growing in the Tikveš region date as far back as the 4th century BC, the industry thrived during medieval times with its production as was common at the time throughout Europe being made in monasteries.

The Tikveš region is situated in an area with a unique and favourable climate produced by the merging of the Mediterranean from the South and Continental from the North. Combined with arable soil; high with eroded clay content makes this a most favourable area to grow grapes.

The combined municipalities of Kavadarci, Rosoman and Konopiste utilise 20% of the Republic of Macedonia’s total landmass (45 km²) for the cultivation of grapes, the country is the seventh largest exporter of wine to the EU from outside the region. Of the total harvested crop in Kavadarci, 80% are wine Grapes and 20% are Table Grapes. The Tikveš winery processes up to 55 million kilograms of grapes to produce approximately 35 million litres of wine each year. Although the largest and most prolific, Tikveš is by no means the only winery in the city, examples of others that exist in Kavadarci include Cekorovi (Macedonian: Чекоров) and Popov (Macedonian: Попов). The combined wineries in the region export up to 26 different countries around the world.

On the first week of September of each year a festival called "Tikveski Grozdober" - Tikveš Grape Picking (Macedonian: ТИКВЕШКИ ГРОЗДОБЕР) is held for several days marking the beginning of the wine grape harvest in the Tikveš region. Such is the importance of this fruit, the city flag is composed of 6 circles in white and red representing the town’s most abundant and important produce