Slovenian Wine - Viticulture and Winemaking

Viticulture and Winemaking

In Slovenia, many vineyards are located along slopes or hillsides in terraced rows. Historically vines were trained in a pergola style that optimizes fruit yields. However the emphasis on higher quality wine production has encouraged more vineyards to switch to a Guyot style of vine training. The steep terrain of most vineyards encourages the using of manual harvesting over mechanical.

Wines in Slovenia have traditionally follow the Austrian preference of single varietal over blended wines but the production of blended wines are on the rise. While wines were historically aged in large Slovenian or Slavonian wooden cask, the trend has been to use small and varying sizes of French and Slovenian oak barrels. In the Littoral both red and white wines often go through Malolactic fermentation with Podravje and Posavje typically using that technique only for red wine production. In the Littoral, dessert wines are made in a passito style with the Brda region specialize in wines made from Verduc and Pikolit. In the Drava Valley region, botrytized wines are produced from Laški Rizling, Renski Rizling and Šipon and classified in a system similar to the German wine classification based on sweetness-ranging from pozna trgatev (Spätlese), izbor (Auslese), jagodni izbor (Beerenauslese), ledeno vino (Eiswein) and suhi jagodni izbor (Trockenbeerenauslese).

Slovenian wine laws dictate that all wines must be submitted to chemical analysis and tastings prior to being released on the market. After testing the wines are assigned a quality level according to the Zaščiteno geografsko poreklo (ZGP) which is similar to the European Union's QWPSR system-Quality Wines Produced in Specified Regions. The quality ranges are as followed-

• Namizno vino - Table wine
• Deželno vino PGO - Country wine
• Kakovostno ZGP - Quality wine
• Vrhunsko vino ZGP - Premium quality wine

Slovenia wine labels include the sweetness level of the wines ranging from suho (dry), polsuho (medium-dry), polsladko (medium-sweet) and sladko (sweet). The designation Posebno tradicionalno poimenovanje (PTP) is applied to a traditional Slovenia wine from a specific region. As of 2009, the PTP wines in Slovenia are the Kras wine Teran from Primorska and from the Lower Sava Valley the Lower Carniolan wine Cviček, White Carniolan wines Belokranjec and Metliška Črnina and both the red and the white Bizeljčan from Bizeljsko-Sremic.