"Normally we would expect to get around 7,500 tonnes, but wine-growing families of the biggest producer and exporter of Slovenian wine will expectedly bring around 6,400 tonnes of grapes to the cellar," Klet Brda said on Wednesday.

Grape picking started today with Pinot gris. Most of the works should be done by the end of the month, while some grape varieties will stay in the vineyard until 10 October or longer.

The picking of grapes for sparkling wine started at the end of August and continued throughout last week.

This year the prices for a kilogram of grapes range from 40 cents to 1.10 euro, with the prices of special grape varieties that are picked later expected to reach even higher values.

This year brought virtually no weather-related problems to wine growers except for last Saturday, when hail storms hit some parts of the region, cutting the produce by up to a third there.

But weather during harvest will be crucial. "The outlook for the harvest is nevertheless optimistic, so all we in Brda want during the harvest is dry and sunny weather," Klet Brda said.