Illirians (1) and Celtic (2) tribes were living in what is today the republic of Slovenia, a small country located east of Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Italy, south of Austria, and Hungary, east and south of Croatia. Illirians started planting vineyards to make wine long before Romans introduced viticulture to Gauls, Teutons, and Spanish.
Slovenia has three wine producing regions – Podravje, south and west of Hungary, Posavje west of Croatia, and Primorska east of the Friulan sub-region Colio, actually a part of Colio , that is famous for its delightfully aromatic, and fresh whites wines.
Slovenia produces mainly white (75 per cent) white wines on 26 000 hectares of vineyards. Most of the vineyards on terraced vineyards benefit from the sun’s rays and vines are formed trained pergola-style in an attempt to maximize yield.
Growers use a variety of grapes most of western European origin, but translated to Slovenian.
Fro white growers like beli pinot pinot blanc), chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, kerner, laskirizling (welschriesling), malvazija, muskat-Ottonel, pikolit, pineal, prosecco, beli plavac, rizvanec, rebula, renski rizling (Rheinriesling),rumeni muskat, muskatni silvanec, sivi pinot, tokaj, traminec, zelen, zeleni-silvanec, and sipon.
The preferred reds are: barbera, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, kraski teran, merlot, modra frankipja, modra portugalla, modra pinot, refosk, teranton, neuburger, gamay, zametovka, syrah, sentrovrenka, and zweigelt.
The Slovenian wine legislation distinguishes
Table wines
Country wines
Quality wines
Premium wines
The above more or less resembles that of the European Union guidelines of which Slovenia is a member
Labels must include, vintage (if applicable), grape variety or brand, alcohol percentage, producer’s address, content of the bottle, and sweetness levels (dry, off-dry, medium sweet or sweet).
Posavje produces some sparkling wines using the methode champenoise.
Much of the wine produced goes to Bosnia, Croatia, the U S A, Germany, and Italy; the remainder is consumed within the country by tourists and Slovenians.
Slovenian white wines tasted today by this author were well made, true to variety on the label and acid-driven, and balanced. They are reasonably prices and represent good value.
L C B O’s Vintages division offers, from time to time, a few Slovenian wines, well worth trying.

(1) Illirians belonged to a tribe from western Balkans (Albania and former Yugoslavia) in antiquity. Theyu were thought to be bloodthirsty, unpredictable, turbulent and waqrlike by Romans and others in the region.
(2) Celts a tribal societies in eastern and central Euope who thrived from 1200 B C to 400 A D. At their apex Celtic tribes were inhabitingh regions from Scotland to Central Anatolia and from irelans to the Iberian Peninsula.; Trhey spoke a number of languages i.e Lepontic, Gaulish, galatian and Celtiberian.

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Tags: SLOVENIA

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 06:00 and is filed under Food & Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.