At Dobrovo in the Brda the vineyards cross the border without noticing it. The same hills of opoka, a flysch of marl and sandstone, continue westwards as Italy’s Collio; the line drawn in 1947 cut them in two, and the Movia estate, in the Kristančič family since 1820, still farms vines on both sides. Primorska, the Littoral, is Slovenia’s west: four districts with about 6,300 hectares, over two fifths of the country’s vines. Goriška Brda has about 1,800 of them, the Vipava valley 2,100, Slovenian Istria around Koper 1,800 and the Kras a bare 560. The climate is sub-Mediterranean, between the Alps and the Adriatic, with the burja, the bora, which can tear down the Vipava valley in winter in gusts of over 200 km/h.
Rebula the colour of amber
The grape of the Brda is Rebula, the Ribolla Gialla of the Collio: a white of high acidity that becomes something else when it ferments on its skins. Amber, tannic, smelling of tea, dried apricot and walnut, these orange wines have their roots in Georgia, Slovenia and Friuli, where Josko Gravner and Stanko Radikon in Oslavia revived the method in the 1990s; in the Brda, Movia and Kabaj in Šlovrenc, with its amphora wines, belong to the same family. Beside Rebula grow Sauvignon Blanc, Sivi Pinot, Chardonnay and Merlot, which with Refošk is one of the Littoral’s two main reds. The Vipava valley keeps two light native whites of its own, Zelen and Pinela.
In the glass
The grapes the region is known for, by sweetness, acidity, tannin and body.
| Grape | Sweetness | Acidity | Tannin | Body |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sauvignon Blanc | dry | medium(+) to high | white, no tannin | medium(−) to medium |
| Pinot Gris | dry to off-dry, also sweet | medium(−) to medium | white, no tannin | medium(−) to full |
| Chardonnay | dry | medium to high | white, no tannin | medium(−) to full |
| Furmint | dry to luscious | high | white, no tannin | medium to full |
| Merlot | dry | medium(−) to medium | medium(−) to medium(+) | medium to full |
Each grape’s typical range worldwide, not in this region alone, on the WSET tasting grid (Level 3, 2022): dry to luscious, low to high, light to full. The dot before each name shows the colour of a typical bottle. Outlined: a sweet style beside the dry wines.
Teran, a name in court
The Kras is the limestone plateau that gave the word karst to the world. In its hollows lies red terra rossa, and on it grows Refošk, which here becomes Teran: deep violet, sharp, tasting of iron, drunk young with pršut, the Kras ham protected in the EU since 2012. On the same plateau stands Lipica, the stud founded in 1580 that bred the Lipizzaner. Teran is also the name of a European dispute: Slovenia protects it as a designation of the Kras, Croatia uses it in Istria. In 2017 the European Commission allowed Croatian labels to carry the word only beside the protected designation Hrvatska Istra, in smaller type; Slovenia sued, and in September 2020 the EU General Court dismissed the action.
Sense of scale
6,300 ha Primorska has about 44 % of the Swiss vineyard.
One square is all of Switzerland: about 14,350 hectares of vines.
One country, three wine regions
Slovenia has about 14,600 hectares of vines in its register, roughly the size of Switzerland’s vineyard, and three regions. Posavje along the Sava makes Cviček, the light Dolenjska blend of white and red grapes; Podravje along the Drava is the land of Laški rizling, of Šipon, as Furmint is called here, and of Maribor’s Stara trta, the Žametovka vine over 400 years old that the Guinness book has listed since 2004 as the oldest in the world. Primorska, the warmest of the three, is the home of Slovenian Refošk.
Serve a fresh Rebula at 10 degrees with trout or asparagus, a macerated one at 12 to 14 with aged cheese or a mushroom risotto; Teran at 15 to 16 degrees with pršut and jota; a Brda Merlot with game.