Ep 178: Slovenia

Slovenia is small but it's up and coming! It's a fascinating place with a long winemaking tradition that should pique your interest.

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Slovenia's Wine Stats:

• Population of two million people, who drink a LOT: 5th highest wine consumption per capita in the world
• About 75% of the country's production is white wine
  
• 55K Planted acres makes it the size of Sonoma County, in California
• Small portion of the wine is exported
• 70% of the wine is premium, most is made in the clean modern style 
  • Some using ancient techniques (clay amphorae) to give the texture a tannic rasp and the wine a rosy, sometimes amber, hue (orange wines)

Slovenia's Wine History

• Of Celts, Romans, Christians, and Napoleon
• By the end of the WWII, co-ops controlled nearly all of the region's wine production: Sucky bulk wine production with a few small private wineries in the Drava Valley region
• In 1967, the government established the PSVVS (Business Association for Viticulture and Wine Production)
• In 1991, Slovenia was the first to declare independence from Yugoslavia
• Dictatorship/Socialism/Communism separated countries from centuries of winemaking traditions but they are catching up now

Geography 

• At crossroad of eastern and central Europe bordered by Hungary, Italy, Croatia, and Austria 
• Important Rivers: Drava and Sava connect to the Danube
• Dynamic regions on borders

3 Main Regions

• Primorska: 
  • Near Italian region of Fruili Venezia Giulia, high quality whites and reds
  • Sub regions: Vipava Valley, Goriska Brda (gore-ISH-KA BURR-DA), Koper (pr. Coper), Karst plateau district
  • Grapes: Ribolla Gialla, Pinot Grigio, other whites, Refosco other reds
  • Experimentation and blending of old and new: Orange wines, clay amphora, and long, long aging

• Drava (Podravje) 
  • Botrytis affected whites, Welschriesling, Furmin
    
  • Nearly 97% of the wine made in the Drava Valley region is white wine
  • Seven sub-regions

• Lower Sava (Posavje) 
  • Only Slovenian wine region that produces more red wine than white, though not by a large margin
  • Three districts, you may see Lower Carniola on a bottle
  • Lower Sava Valley region is dominated by bulk wine, rather than premium wine, production
  • Use of many native grapes

Hope you enjoy this off-the-beaten trail podcast.