The tough weather has generally reduced the yields, but high quality wine is expected this year too.

The biggest Slovenian winery, P&F Jeruzalem or Puklavec Family Wines, expects EUR 3.5m litres of wine, which is about 20% less than in the average year for the winery's vineyards.

Its expert Rok Jamnik told the STA that the vineyards, located in the NE of the country, were hit by frost in the spring.

A drought followed that also included some hail, but Jamnik nonetheless expects a "good, relatively high quality harvest, the grapes are healthy".

The quality forecasts are also good at Vinakoper, the coastal winery which produces 3.2m litres of wine on average.

The grape amounts are believed to be on par with average years for Vinakoper, with the winery's chief oenologist Boštjan Zidar explaining that only some of the vineyards have been affected by the drought. In general, the recent rain is believed to have saved the situation.

While P&F Jeruzalem and Vinakoper will already start the harvest in the second half of August, another major winery, Vinska klet Metlika, expects the grape picking to begin at the start of September, about a week sooner than usual.

Martina Legan Janžekovič of the Metlika Winery, whose vineyards are located in the south east, said that the Rizling and Chardonnay grapes have been hit the most by the drought, which has been persisting since the end of April.

"The vines grew unequally, which is also reflected in the structure of the grapes, with large ripe grapes located right next to small and unripe ones," Legan Janžekovič told the STA.

She finds it hard to assess how the harvest will be affected amount-wise. In the average year, the Metlika winery produces between 600,000 and 700,000 litres of wine.