0 m
The crown
Whole clusters come off the rows above the building and arrive at the highest floor, where they are sorted by hand on a moving belt. Nothing has fallen yet.
Toplički Vinogradi · Prokuplje · Toplica · Serbia
The return of a giant
35 metres into a hillside in southern Serbia stands one of the largest wineries ever built privately in the Balkans. It sold at the top of the Asian market, went quiet for a few years, but never stopped farming. TOKO is the name those wines carry into Europe.
- Founded
- 2008
- Vineyard
- 50 ha
- Cellar
- 4.5m litres
- Hero grape
- Prokupac
01The return
A giant, waking.
In 2008 a family planted 50 hectares of red stone above Prokuplje. Then they built at a scale the region had never attempted: 5 levels cut into the hill, a cellar for 4.5 million litres, room to fill 3 million bottles a year. The first wine came out of it in 2014.
The wine went east. Gold leaf cuvées, made for gifting, sold at the top of the Chinese market, with Japan and Vietnam behind it. Then the estate stopped selling and spent several years putting itself in order. It kept farming the whole time. Nobody pulled up a vine.
That is where the story turns. The vineyards are in full production, the cellar is full, and the estate is pointing itself at Europe for the first time. TOKO is the name it travels under. This page is the door, and there are not many keys.
- 2008Estate founded
- 2014Winery operational
- 50 haAcross 3 sites
- 350 mAltitude
- 6 centuriesOf wine in Toplica
02The winery
5 levels.
Gravity throughout.
The building descends around 35 metres into the hill. Fruit comes in at the crown and falls: sorting, crushing, fermentation, oak, rest. Nothing is pumped, so nothing is bruised. It is a method kept for the most considered addresses in France and Italy, built here at a scale most of them will never need.
0m
- 01The crown
- 02Destemming
- 03Fermentation
- 04The barrel hall
- 05The cellar
−9 m
Destemming
The fruit drops to the crusher below. Stems are taken away, skins open, and the first colour runs into the steel. Gravity does the carrying, so the berries stay whole until they are meant not to be.
−17 m
Fermentation
A round hall lit from a single oculus, glazed to the valley on every side. Tanks stand in a ring under the concrete. Warm days and cool nights, the rhythm of the Toplica, carried indoors.
−26 m
The barrel hall
Sessile oak, each head branded with the house mark. The reds settle here and lose their edges. The temperature holds itself, because the hill holds it.
−35 m
The cellar
4.5 million litres at the bottom of the building, under concrete vaults. Room for 3 million bottles a year. Dark, still, and quiet enough to hear the barrels work.
Walk it yourself
Toplički Vinogradi
Nobody believes the scale from a photograph. Start in the rows, follow the fruit down through the building, and finish on the valley at first light.
03The grape
Prokupac
Named after the town below us. Grown almost nowhere else on earth.
600 years of people have grown this grape on this ground, and almost nobody grows it anywhere else. Prokupac takes its name from Prokuplje, the town at the foot of the estate. A buyer who wants it has to come to southern Serbia to get it.
10 years ago a buyer had nothing to say about Georgian wine. Ask one now. Serbia is standing where Georgia stood, and it starts with something Georgia had to build from scratch: a red grape of its own, already planted and already in bottle. Most producers can offer another version of a wine the world knows. We can offer one it does not.
The map of European wine has 1 corner left where a buyer can still be early.
Deep, opaque, closer to black cherry than to ruby. The colour arrives early, in the first hours on the skins, and it holds.
Ripe dark fruit: blackberry, sour cherry, dried plum. Warm days build it, and the cool nights of the valley keep it from going jammy.
Firm, with a savoury edge that stops the wine ever tasting soft. Tannin with grip rather than weight, and acidity that carries it to the end.
Red stony soil at around 350 metres, between Kopaonik and Jastrebac. The stones hold the day's heat, and the wine tastes of the ground it came off.
Picked in whole clusters by people who have picked here for years, and sorted by hand at the top of the building on the day it comes in.
04The land
Toplica.
Red earth, high light.
50 hectares across 3 sites near Prokuplje, on red and stony soils at around 350 metres, in a valley held between the Kopaonik and Jastrebac ranges.
Warm days give way to cold nights, and the stones hold the heat long after the sun has gone. That swing is why a wine off this ground can be ripe and firm in the same mouthful. 6 centuries of people have farmed it for exactly that reason.
- Vineyard
- Approx. 50 hectares, 3 sites
- Soil
- Red, stony
- Altitude
- Around 350 metres
- Planted
- Prokupac, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc
05The wines
4 wines.
1 hillside.
Swipe for the range
Red · Europe
TOKO Prokupac
100 percent Prokupac, from the estate's oldest red parcels. Deep to the rim, dark fruited, with the savoury grip the grape is known for. Aged in sessile oak, and the reason to look at Serbia at all.
- Grape
- Prokupac 100%
- Ageing
- Sessile oak
- Vintage
- To be confirmed
White · Europe
TOKO Sauvignon Blanc
From the estate's higher parcels, where the nights are coldest. Bright and aromatic, cut clean, with the citrus and cut-grass lift the variety gives when it is picked early enough. Made in steel, bottled young.
- Grape
- Sauvignon Blanc 100%
- Vessel
- Stainless steel
- Vintage
- To be confirmed
Red · Europe
TOKO Merlot
From the warmer mid-slope parcels, picked once the tannin has softened and while the acid is still there. Plum and cocoa, round through the middle, closing on the same savoury Toplica note. Gold in Belgrade in 2021.
- Grape
- Merlot 100%
- Ageing
- Sessile oak
- Vintage
- To be confirmed
Rosé · Europe
PRKOS Rosé
Prkos means defiance. Drawn off the red skins after a few hours, then made cold and quickly in steel. Pale, dry and mineral, with wild strawberry and citrus peel, and a stony close that keeps it serious.
- Grape
- Prokupac, direct press
- Vessel
- Stainless steel
- Vintage
- To be confirmed
06Recognition
Judged, and decorated.
- Double Gold Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 Belgrade International Wine Competition 2021
- Gold Merlot 2018 Belgrade International Wine Competition 2021
- Gold Cabernet Sauvignon, barrel aged AWC Vienna International Wine Challenge ·
- Silver Pinot Noir AWC Vienna International Wine Challenge ·
07Heritage
The eastern chapter.
Before the pause, the estate made gold leaf cuvées for gifting and celebration and placed them at the premium end of the Asian market. China was the strongest of them, with Japan and Vietnam alongside.
It matters for one reason. This wine has already crossed a continent, cleared customs and held its price on a listing in one of the hardest markets there is. Europe is the second act.
- 中国 China
- 日本 Japan
- Việt Nam Vietnam
08The partnership
We do not sell
to everyone.
TOKO goes to 1 partner per market, and only where the fit is right. That limit buys something in return: real money and real attention behind the wine in the place where you sell it. Fewer partners, larger commitments, and a label that stays worth carrying.
01
1 partner, 1 market
Where we sign, we sign once. The allocation is yours to build on, rather than defend against 3 other importers carrying the same label.
02
We market beside you
In every market with a signed partner we put budget behind the wine: paid campaigns, trade press, buyer and sommelier tastings, point of sale, and film and photography shot on the estate for you to use as your own.
03
Premium wine, honest price
We own the land, the winery and the cellar, and the building was made for 3 million bottles. That is why a wine of this level can reach your list at a price that leaves you a margin worth working for.
04
The estate is open
Bring your buyers, your sommeliers and your sales team to Gojinovac. Standing in the barrel hall does more for a listing than any deck we could send you.
- 1Partner per market
- 3,000,000Bottle capacity a year
- 4,500,000 LIn cellar, ready to move
- Estate ownedVineyard, winery and cellar
09Apply for a market
Apply to
carry it.
Applications are read at the estate, not by an agency. We answer every one and open a conversation with the few that fit. The questions below are the ones we would ask on a first call, so answering them properly is the fastest way through.
Trade only. We do not sell to private buyers through this page.
Thank you.
Your application is with us. We read every one, and we answer the ones we can serve properly. Expect to hear from us within a few working days.
Not ready to apply
Questions about the wines, the terms or the estate. A short note is enough to start.
hello@toko.winePress and imagery
The story, the photography and the film, for anyone writing about the estate.
press@toko.wineCome and see it
Gojinovac, Prokuplje, in the Toplica valley between Kopaonik and Jastrebac.
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