| 
For such a small
country, Slovenia is blessed with an astonishing range
of wines, of equally astonishing quality. In some ways, this is largely due to a hangover (!) of its
socialist past, when wine growers were limited to no more
than 9 hectares of land. Furthermore, many of them had no choice but to sell their grapes to local cooperatives, some of which were 'responsible' for the original plonk, much loved in British corner shops during the seventies.
Individual growers, making wines for themselves and the local populace, needed to ensure that all their grapes were not in one basket, as it were - so they developed many varieties on comparatively small plots of land. This in turn lead to much experimentation and ever-finer control over specific varieties.
 In recent decades, there has been an almost magical change, whereby the producers have used their more focused approach to develop a truly artisan wine making culture. Because of it's high quality production in small quantities (vineyards cover around 20,000 hectares), Slovenia is often compared to New Zealand... and who would have thought of quaffing kiwi juice just twenty years ago?
'Slovenia is a boutique shop of fine wines not yet discovered by the rest of the world.’ It was this phrase, uttered by fellow wine judge Marin Berovic, that led me to his native country’s capital, Ljubljana, and beyond, for a week of discovery.
- from an excellent article on Slovene wines by David Furer, published in Wine International, February 2005.
From Decanter Magazine:
“Increasingly, Slovenia is being compared , not only to its highflying neighbours , such as Collio in Italy and Styria in Austria, but even to New Zealand.” - Caroline Gilby MW
“Merchants, sommeliers and writers are beginning to sit up and take notice of Slovenia, and it can only be a matter of time before self-respecting wine enthusiasts do the same. Whatever their past, Slovenian wines clearly have an exciting future.” - Andrew Catchpole
"Slovenia’s performance in the Decanter Awards… shows clearly that this is a country to watch." - Stephen Spurrier
|
|
Consequently, the Slovene export market in fine wines has been slow to develop, due to a combination of low expectations in the UK market and low volumes in production of the best wines.
But now things they are a'changing. The quality and sophistication of Slovenian wines are being recognised around the world. Although not freely available in off licences and supermarkets yet, many restaurateurs are getting 'Slovenly', including Heston Blumenthal and Alain Ducasse. Even better, in the 2007 Decanter World Wine Awards, Slovenia trashed (our description) the competition from Central and Eastern Europe.
The best wines are certainly produced by the small winegrowers like Marjan Simčič, Movia’s Aleš Kristančič, Edi Simčič, Stojan Ščurek, Aljoša Jakončič, Stanko Čurin, and Sutor’s Primož Lavrenčič for instance.
They produce a number of different grape varieties, some well known and some rather interesting native ones.
 Due to the climate, Slovenia is best at producing white wines, be it Rieslings and Gewurztraminers in the northeast on the border with Austria & Hungary (Podravje) or Pinot Grigios, Chardonnays, Sauvignons and native varities like Rebula and Zelen in the southwest bordering Italy (Primorska).
Among international red varieties Pinot Noir and Merlot are worth trying, Podravje and Posavje (southeast, bordering Croatia) regions focus mostly on Blaufraenkisch, but the most distinctive red wine (probably a bit of a shock for the British palate) is Teran from the Kras sub-region of Primorska, made from a local version of Refosco, grown in terra rosa. Best drunk with homemade pršut (prosciutto).
 The limited production (often only a few hundred to a couple thousand bottles) means most quality wine is priced around (and a bit over) 10 GBP: forget about buying Slovene wine for £2.99, unless you want to drink gut-rot, produced by lots of “part-time” winegrowers in their back yards.
|
