{"id":794,"date":"2016-03-04T11:57:42","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T17:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecorkscrewconcierge.com\/?p=794"},"modified":"2019-01-05T18:26:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-06T00:26:00","slug":"wining-my-way-in-slovenia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecorkscrewconcierge.com\/2016\/03\/wining-my-way-in-slovenia\/","title":{"rendered":"From Croatia to Slovenia: The Tip of the Slovenian Wine Iceberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a continuation of our travels in Croatia which I previously wrote about<\/a>. You know you have a short attention span and need things to be broken up. Heck, I’ve had a terrible time staying focused and reading long articles since law school – and that was 18 years ago!<\/p>\n

So, after a few magical days in Croatia, we rented a car and drove on up to Slovenia for a few days. Yes, it was pretty easy to drive (aside from some crazy traffic jam for which there was no apparent cause) and I made an excellent navigator for my husband. And we learned from the guy at the Slovenian border that it is against the law to drink coffee while driving. Who knew?! Pretty sure my husband wasn’t thrilled about that.<\/p>\n

Slovenia has a thriving wine industry comprised of three primary wine regions \u2013 Primorska, Podravska, and Posavska \u2013 each of which has multiple sub-regions. Our route north from Rovinj took us through the Primorska region which includes Slovenian Istria. (Recall that Istria is comprised of Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy). Yeah, it\u2019s easier if you just pull out a map. The Slovenia for You<\/a> site provides some great information about the Slovenian wine industry.<\/p>\n

So since we\u2019d had some of the wine from Croatian Istria, I certainly wanted to have some from Slovenian Istria. I think both countries have a bit of a rivalry when it some to their wines. And while I had no formal wine tasting planned (I have to allow time for shopping and my husband likes to get in some beer from time to time) I did have a plan. Note<\/u>: I’m not a fan of “winging it.” I NEED to have a plan though sometimes I just pretend that we’re being spontaneous so that my husband doesn’t feel like I’ve planned out his whole life.<\/p>\n

Vinakoper Winery<\/i><\/p>\n

En route to our first official destination in Slovenia, we would pass by Vinakoper<\/a> winery in Koper, Slovenia. I mean it was right off the highway, so…<\/p>\n

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I use the term “winery” loosely as Vinakoper was primarily a store with lots of wines and other goodies (salt and truffles anyone?) for purchase as well as a restaurant, but you could also taste some Slovenian wines and there appeared to some sort of production facility attached at the back. No scenic views and hills, but you’re here to taste the wine, right? Vinakoper is located in Istria so this was our first opportunity to try some Istrian wines from Slovenia. They also had some large tanks where locals could come in and fill up their very large containers with wine – sort of like getting wine from a tap. Obviously we couldn’t take those with us, so we just did the regular tasting. We tasted Chardonnay, Malvazija, a blended sparkling red wine, Refo\u0161k (also called Refosco), Merlot, and a sweet Muskat. This was my first encounter with Refosco, or so I thought. Refosco is indigenous to Istria and apparently there are several varieties of Refosco including an Istrian variety grown in parts of Slovenia and Croatia as well as a variety called Teran. So it appears Refosco and Teran are the same grape though there is still some dispute over that. Surely someone smarter than me knows for sure. Whatever it is or isn’t, I found it to be big and bold and very tannic – similar to the Teran I’d tasted a couple of days before in Croatia. The Merlot was a nice surprise and had relatively low tannins. I was also a big fan of the red sparkling wine which was 85% Refosco and 15% Merlot. It was a quick tasting, only lasting about a half hour or so, but I was so happy we’d stopped. Merlot and sparkling red wine in hand, it was time to move on down the road.<\/p>\n

Our first official destination was at the Postojna Caves<\/a>, which are amazing underground caves that I highly recommend visiting. There’s a train that takes you a couple of miles below ground to see the amazing stalagmites and stalactites. Very cool (and a little weird).<\/p>\n

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Lovely Ljubljana<\/i><\/p>\n

We then went on to Ljubljana which is the capital of Slovenia (not everybody knows this). I absolutely loved this charming little city! Really, really loved it.<\/p>\n

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Not to mention all those famous bridges.<\/p>\n

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