Around 30,000 registered wineries in Slovenia produces between 80 and 100 million litres of wine annually (46 millions in poor 2014) from 16.000 registered hectares of vineyards out of 19.300 hectares in nature. The Slovenian Wine Festival celebrates it all! The Slovenia Times took part in this prestigious event, held from 19-20 November at the Grand Hotel Union in Ljubljana.

The best wines and sparkles

The festival presents Slovene winemakers and their wines, along with a few selected foreign brands,and awards the best wines in association with Dolce vita magazine. For eight years in a row, it has been accompanied by the Culinary Festival.

At the opening ceremony, Rado Stojanovič, the festival director, announced the best winemakers. The Spirit of Jeruzalem 2011 from the Kupljen wine cellar was the ultimate winner of the festival, taking home two titles - highest rated wine and best white wine. The award for best young wine went to Alojzij Gaube for his wine, Prvenec 2015 and the best red wine this year was awarded to the Zgonik wine cellar for their 2012 red cuvee. Last but not least, Radgona Gold brut nature 2007 was deemed by the jury to be the best sparkling wine of the festival.

Wine is something you experience with four senses

In order to fulfil its purpose of educating people on wine and proper wine tasting techniques and therefore ensuring a responsible and proper wine experience, a simple tasting was not enough;the festival offered a number of workshops,one such workshop was organised by The Slovenia Times. Named Traditional and indigenous grape varieties in Slovenia and led by Mira Šemić, a WSET Level 3 and sommelier,it took participants on a journey through the Slovene wine-growing regions, using samples from each of them to illustrate the differences and show the complexity and richness in the broad variety of Slovene wines.

Before letting her guests taste the wines, Mira Šemić explained the proper way to do soto experience the winein its full flavour and intricacy. "You see, it is not enough to drink it, not at all. Wine is something you experience with four senses. You must listen to it, to how it pours itself into the glass; look at it, at the colour it adorns itself with; smell it, to prepare yourself for the taste; and finally taste it - let it linger in your mouth, before you swallow it. Oh, and always give it space - circle it around your glass a few times, in order to let it release its full taste. In this way, you will really get to know the wine."

She continued by showing a map of the areas where wine is produced in Slovenia and presented a sample of wine from each of them to give each region some tangibility. Thus guests sampled theVipava valley through Ferjančič zelen 2014, experienced Štajerska Slovenija with Valdhuber 2014 Laški Riesling and were given an impression of Slovenian Istria with a Malvazija Classic 2013 from the Rodica Truške ecological vineyard. They were then able to taste KZ Krško 2011 Blaufränkisch from the Bizeljsko-Sremič region and finally, the 2011 Colja teran wine from the Karst region of Slovenia...

All in all, the 18th Slovenian Wine Festival was a great success as it undoubtedly will be in the years to come. Until then, Cheers!