Slovenian Wine Festival 2013
Posted on 25 November 2013
So I’ve spent two days and 160 wines here in Ljubljana for the Slovenian Wine Festival, the country’s top wine salon. A fairly busy event with 100 producers and what looked like several thousand people attending.
This was just the beginning.
There were too many wines to taste all, so I’ve chosen to do one thing well rather than three less well, and I focused on western Slovenia exclusively: the region of Primorska and its four appellations of controlled origin: Brda, Vipava, Kras and Slovenska Istra.
Extraordinary Refosco.
It’s the region that in the past, excited me more than Posavje and Podravje to the east. This time too, it’s drunk well. Not all top producers attended but teo were top world class: Rojac and Sutor. Rojac, a star of Slovenian Istra, explores the boundaries of wine styles: like several other guys he makes a lovely macerated white Malvazija called Maceracija 2009 which explodes with ripe tangeriney flavours. And his Renero 2007 is a captivating take on Refošk (same as the Refosco of Friuli and Veneto), usually a challenging mix of high tannins and high acids, while Renero finds now shades of ripe black fruits and extreme concentration. Even Rojac’s basic 2010 Refošk is a testimony to this winemaker’s talent: earthy and stalky but sublimely fruity.
Sutor has beautiful labels, top.
Sutor, the winery of father Edvard and son Mitja Lovrenčič, lies in Vipava, a more inland zone with a windy climate and structured soils including limestone and flysch. Sutor has long been on my list for his stupendous Sauvignon, a wine of beguiling fruitiness and direct minerality that firmly puts Vipava on the world Sauvignon map. This time, I’ve actually enjoyed the 2011 Malvazija more: incredible freshness and delineation for a wine which saw a part of the grapes macerating no less than one year in the oak vat! And Sutor’s 2009 Red (95% Merlot) never disappoints: in an age of heavy extracted wines (if not elsewhere then surely in Croatia) this is a stupendously elegant, silky wine where a stark acidic structure served to refresh rather than sharp. Extraordinary wines from extraordinarily dedicated people.
I do feel Slovenia, too.
Disclosure: my trip to the Slovenian Wine Festival including flights and accommodation is paid for by the organisers.