From Ancient Olive Trees to Michelin Recognition, Croatian Producers Redefine Agritourism

Summary

Nives and Goran Morović of Croatia have built suc­cess­ful careers in teach­ing and entre­pre­neur­ship, and have gained recog­ni­tion for restor­ing a 400-year-old olive grove on Goran’s ances­tral land in Žman. Their high-qual­ity Coratina olive oils, rich in polyphe­nols, have received numer­ous awards and led to the con­struc­tion of Villa Nai 3.3, a lux­ury estate with guest rooms, restau­rants, well­ness facil­i­ties, and inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion includ­ing three Michelin Keys.

Nothing brings joy quite like suc­cess, and Nives and Goran Morović of Croatia know well how it is achieved. The cou­ple lives in Split, the largest city in Dalmatia, where they built suc­cess­ful careers in their respec­tive pro­fes­sions. Nives works as a teacher, while Goran, a grad­u­ate civil engi­neer, dis­tin­guished him­self as an entre­pre­neur.

They drew par­tic­u­lar atten­tion when they began restor­ing a 400-year-old fam­ily olive grove on Goran’s ances­tral land in the vil­lage of Žman on Dugi Otok, grad­u­ally expand­ing the prop­erty with new plant­i­ngs.

“We started 17 years ago,” the Morovićs recalled. Alongside cen­turies-old Oblica and Drobnica trees, they pur­chased addi­tional plots and planted 1,100 olive trees across five hectares, focus­ing pri­mar­ily on indige­nous vari­eties. They also intro­duced Coratina, which proved excep­tion­ally suc­cess­ful.

“Coratina oil is rich in polyphe­nols with ben­e­fi­cial prop­er­ties,” Nives said.

Under EU Regulation 432/2012, olive oils con­tain­ing more than 250 mil­ligrams per liter of polyphe­nols, includ­ing hydrox­y­ty­rosol, oleu­ropein and oleo­can­thal, may carry a health claim stat­ing that the prod­uct has ben­e­fi­cial prop­er­ties. Goran noted that the Aristoil project col­lected olive oil sam­ples for three con­sec­u­tive years and found that Croatian olive oils con­tained twice as many polyphe­nols as Italian oils and five per­cent more than Spanish oils.

Six years ago, lab­o­ra­tory analy­ses showed that the Morovićs’ Coratina oils con­tained as much as 1,648 mil­ligrams of polyphe­nols per liter, the high­est level recorded in Croatia.

The Morovićs’ organic extra vir­gin olive oils, par­tic­u­larly those made from Coratina, are among the rich­est in polyphe­nols. Their Drobnica oil and blends of the two vari­eties also match Coratina in qual­ity.

The ter­roir, espe­cially on the north­ern side of Žman, is well-suited to olive cul­ti­va­tion. In addi­tion to pro­nounced pun­gency, bit­ter­ness and fruiti­ness, the oils dis­play notable bal­ance and har­mony. As a result, they have received numer­ous awards at inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tions.

“At the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, we have mostly won Gold Awards with our Coratina,” the Morovićs said, adding that they plan to sub­mit their oils again this year to the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity assess­ment.

“The best oil is always made by the hands of olive grow­ers,” they said. The olives are hand-har­vested and processed the same day using cold extrac­tion at their own mill. Before press­ing, each fruit is inspected again by hand, with stems removed and any dam­aged or defec­tive olives dis­carded.

“Only healthy fruit pro­duces qual­ity oil,” Nives and Goran empha­sized. They reported sat­is­fac­tion with both yields and oil recov­ery rates, which improved com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year.

The cli­mate and soil of Dugi Otok give local oils dis­tinc­tive fla­vors. One unusual fac­tor also plays a role: snow. Snowfall is rare on the island, aver­ag­ing 3.3 days per year accord­ing to his­tor­i­cal records, but grow­ers believe har­vests are bet­ter in years when snow falls. Snow helps reduce pests, par­tic­u­larly olive fruit flies and bor­ers, and sup­ports bud dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion.

In the for­mer Dalmatian Romance lan­guage, snow was called ​“Nai.” Combining this word with the aver­age num­ber of snowy days, the Morovićs named their brand Nai 3.3.

The same name was later given to Villa Nai 3.3, an under­stated yet strik­ing struc­ture built on the estate. Originally con­ceived as an olive mill, the project expanded after renowned Croatian archi­tect Nikola Bašić envi­sioned a lux­ury villa posi­tioned at the top of the grove. Following the ter­rain’s nat­ural con­tours, the build­ings blend almost imper­cep­ti­bly into the land­scape.

Stone exca­vated on site was used in con­struc­tion, rein­forc­ing the project’s sus­tain­able char­ac­ter. Alongside the mill, the same roof shel­ters accom­mo­da­tion facil­i­ties built to the stan­dards of The Leading Hotels of the World.

Villa Nai 3.3 offers eight guest rooms — three suites and five smaller rooms — accom­mo­dat­ing up to 16 guests. All rooms fea­ture inte­ri­ors designed in har­mony with nature and open onto spa­cious ter­races over­look­ing the olive grove.

“Guests are delighted to enjoy the silence and nat­ural sur­round­ings,” Goran said. Two sea­wa­ter pools are avail­able: an out­door infin­ity pool and an indoor pool, both sup­plied with sea­wa­ter pumped from below. The facil­i­ties sit 64 meters above sea level.

The estate also includes a well­ness and spa area with treat­ments based on olive-derived prod­ucts. Guests who par­tic­i­pate in the har­vest can taste fresh oils first, while olive leaf tea is always avail­able.

The gas­tro­nomic offer­ing includes two restau­rants. Grotta 11000 pre­pares dishes exclu­sively over open fire and embers, while the fine din­ing restau­rant fea­tures ingre­di­ents sourced from island farms and the sur­round­ing sea. Gardens on the estate pro­duce a vari­ety of fruits and veg­eta­bles through­out the year.

The prop­erty received inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion on October 8, when Villa Nai 3.3 was awarded three Michelin Keys in Paris. ​“This is the high­est recog­ni­tion Croatian hos­pi­tal­ity has received so far,” Goran said.

Beyond the Keys, Villa Nai 3.3 was also a final­ist for Michelin’s best-designed hotel award. While the top prize went to Atlantis Royal in Dubai, the Morovićs noted that only 143 hotels world­wide cur­rently hold three Michelin Keys.

Nives and Goran increas­ingly wel­come guests per­son­ally, many of whom arrive by plane or yacht. The estate is located mid­way between Venice and Dubrovnik, close to Telašćica Nature Park and the Kornati National Park.

The cou­ple plans to move per­ma­nently from Split to Žman on Dugi Otok, where they have com­bined olive grow­ing, archi­tec­ture and agri­tourism, con­tin­u­ing a fam­ily tra­di­tion that spans cen­turies.

As a renowned French oenol­o­gist once observed, tra­di­tion is ​“an exper­i­ment that lasts and is passed on to gen­er­a­tions who con­tinue to refine it.”