Slovenian wine

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Brda
region
A traditional vineyard cottage in the Ptuj region

ha of vineyards. About 75% of the country's production is white wine. Almost all of the wine is consumed domestically with only 6.1 million L a year being exported—mostly to the United States, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and lately the Czech Republic. Most of the country's wine production falls under the classification of premium (vrhunsko) wine with less than 30% classified as basic table wine (namizno vino). Slovenia has three principal wine regions: the Drava Wine-Growing Region, the Lower Sava Wine-Growing Region, and the Littoral Wine-Growing Region.[1]

red grape, the Blaufränkisch and the Blauer Portugieser, likely originate from the Styria region of modern Slovenia.[3]

History

See also: History of Slovenia

Unlike many of the major European wine regions, Slovenia's viticultural history predates Roman influences and can be traced back to the early Celtic and Illyrian tribes who began cultivating vines for wine production sometime between the 5th and 4th centuries BC. By the

co-operatives controlled nearly all of the region's wine production and quality was very low as the emphasis was on the bulk wine production. The exception was the few small private wineries in the Drava Valley region that were able to continue operation.[2]

In 1967, the government established the PSVVS (Business Association for Viticulture and Wine Production) which established testing practices for quality assurance and issued seals of approval for wines that met the organization's standards. In 1991, Slovenia was the first

Yugoslav wars, the region's strong ties to the West allowed the industry to quickly rebound. Today the Slovenian wine industry the most advanced and well developed of the former Yugoslav republics and is starting to gain interest in the world's wine market.[2]

Slovenia's major wine regions

Climate and geography

See also: Geography of Slovenia

Slovenia has a diverse geography which provides a wide variety of

Pannonian Plain. The Drava and Sava Rivers are major influences in the Drava Valley and Lower Sava Valley, respectively.[4]

Wine-growing regions

Slovenia has three main wine-growing regions (Slovene: vinorodne dežele) : the Littoral Region, encompassing the area of the traditional region of Slovene Littoral, the Lower Sava Region, which includes the Lower Sava Valley, the White Carniola, and the Lower Carniola, and the Drava Region, which includes the Drava Valley. The Littoral Region is Slovenia's most internationally known region. Though predominately a white wine producer, it is responsible for most of Slovenia's red wine production.

Littoral Region

The

Friulano. Brda is best known for its Rebula white wine and Merlot-Cabernet blends.[2]

The

acidic red wine made from Refosco planted in the region's red iron-rich soil.[2] Other varieties grown in the region include Piccola nera.[5]

The

Vitovska Grganja.[2]

Lower Sava Region

Wine of the Gorjanci region at Žumberak Mountains

The

Traminec, and Zweigelt. Currently the Lower Sava Valley region is dominated more by bulk wine, rather than premium wine, production.[2]

Drava Region

The

Zlahtnina, and Zweigelt.[2]

Viticulture and winemaking

A sparkling wine from Brda

In Slovenia, many vineyards are located along slopes or hillsides in

Guyot style of vine training. The steep terrain of most vineyards encourages the using of manual harvesting over mechanical.[2]

Wines in Slovenia have traditionally followed the

Eiswein) and suhi jagodni izbor (Trockenbeerenauslese).[2]

Slovenian wine acts stipulate that all wines must be submitted to chemical analysis and tastings prior to being released on the market. After testing the wines are assigned a quality level according to a system similar to the

Quality Wines Produced in Specified Regions. The quality categories are the following:[2]

  • Table wine (namizno vino)
  • Country wine with a certified geographic emblem (deželno vino s priznano geografsko označbo, deželno vino PGO)
  • Quality wine with protected geographic origin (kakovostno vino z zaščitenim geografskim poreklom, kakovostno vino ZGP)
  • Premium quality wine with protected geographic origin (vrhunsko vino z zaščitenim geografskim poreklom, vrhunsko vino ZGP)

Slovenia wine labels include the sweetness level of the wines ranging from suho (dry), polsuho (medium-dry), polsladko (medium-sweet) and sladko (sweet). The special traditional name (posebno tradicionalno poimenovanje; PTP) designation is applied to a traditional Slovenia wine from a specific region. As of 2009, the PTP wines in Slovenia are the Karst wine Teran from the Slovenian Littoral, the Lower Carniolan wine Cviček, the White Carniolan wines Belokranjec and Metliška Črnina, and both the red and the white Bizeljčan from Bizeljsko-Sremič.[2][6]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ministrstvo za kmetijstvo, gozdarstvo in prehrano". Opis stanja v panogi. Archived from the original on October 5, 2008. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-19-860990-6
  3. doi:10.5073/vitis.2016.55.135-143. Archived from the original
    on 2017-02-07. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  4. ISBN 1-84000-332-4
  5. ISBN 978-1-846-14446-2
  6. ^ Vino Slovenija

External links