Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of wine tourism on rural destination development. Consequently, this study attempts to develop contemporary insights on this under-researched area such as residents’ perceptions of wine tourism and its impact on the rural destination development. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors used a structured survey questionnaire from a random sample of 318 respondents based on the Fruška Gora Mountain in Serbia. Research also used structural equational modeling for empirical econometric testing in this data sample. This technique is appropriate for multivariate analysis. Findings Personal resident benefit associated with wineries is positively related to resident perceived economic impact (H1) R2=0.624; socio-cultural impact (H2) R2=0.685 and environmental impact (H3) R2=0.716 of wineries on local communities. Looking at the path diagram, the authors concluded that personal resident benefit associated with wineries is strongly related to resident perceived impact of wineries on local communities as regression weights are higher. Other findings relate those residents’ positive perceptions of wine tourism to increases in sales revenue, environmental protection, intrapersonal and interpersonal communication. Research limitations/implications The positive attitude of the local population is an essential link of development. Such understanding of residents’ perceptions optimizes destination management in the future and, more importantly, local sustainable development. This has high policy implications. Originality/value The present study contributes to the scientific circles by connecting perception research with wine tourism.