About the department

The activity that envelops production and the quality of wine dates in the Institute from its establishment. It is trusted that "Kimika" (a one time popular name for the Institute) was formed mostly because of the need to raise the standard of the quality and the health of the wine a notch up. That was the time when phylloxera roamed across western Europe (the time of great conjuncture for Dalmatian wine).

The agricultural service of that period, with the help from the Regional Agricultural Supervision and the travelling teachers, through the experience of the French vineyard rehabilitation before phylloxera ever reached our area, had prepared measures for a quick and and efficient rehabilitation of our viticulture. For that purpose in 1894 are established vine growing centres and pilot vineyards for researching biologic and technical characteristics of new types of grape vines, and furthermore the research on the affinity of American vines and European vines and the applicability of the American vines in specific types of dirt.

A renowned ampelographer, Stjepan Bulic, during his term at the Institute works on the activity concerning Dalmatian ampelography, which represents the fundamental study of botanical and agrobiological characteristics of almost all types of grape vines that are grown in the Adriatic region. On its experimental object the institute by 1907 already had an ampelographic plantation with 185 types of grape vines and had performed a long line of of research.