We’ve skipped over the Italian border into (west) Slovenia, on the 45 parallel, to bring you the crystal clear wines of Kmetija Hedele (‘Kmetija’ means ‘Cantina’). More precisely we’ve followed the ponca trail from the Colli Orientali del Friuli, through Collio & Cormons, & into Slovenia’s stunningly green, serene & luminoso Valle di Vipacco (Vipava), that boasts even more of the amazingly deep, 65 million year sedimentary ponca/flysch/clay & silt, & arenaria (sandstone) soils/beds, that give the white wines a glistening brightness, fruit intensity, & sea-salty mineral quality.
And since 2011, around the village of Goče, local agronomist & ponca expert Andrea Pittana has been planting & vinifying Malvasia Istriana, Sauvignon Blanc, & Chardonnay here, high up on the ponca terraces of the valley. Vines have been planted there since 1892, dating back to Napoleon & the Austro-Hungarian empire. The vineyards are all dry-farmed, with no irrigation.
All wines are tonneaux fermented using indigenous yeast (pied de cuve), having been whole bunch pressed, & aged in tonneaux for a further 12 mths, without battonage or racking. The wines are then racked – along with their lees – into stainless-steel tanks for another 12 mths, before being bottled. Andrea firmly believes in the added quality imparted to the wines by leaving them on their lees for two summers. The Chardonnays also undergo malolactic fermentation in wood, & sometimes the Sauvignon too, depending on the vintage.
Since vintage 2018, Andrea has made a couple of thousand bottles of a single vineyard expression of Chardonnay, from his steepest, ponca rich Obelunec site at between 350-400m asl, & since 2019 also a minerally Sauvignon Blanc from the same Obelunec vyd.
Thirty minutes drive south from Goče in the Valle di Vipava to Kreplje – Sloveno for ‘Pietra’! – which lies in the (larger) Slovenian part of the Kras/Carso region some 8 kms just behind Trieste, on 80 million yo ancient (older than Burgundy, Langhe, & Vipava!) leached terra rossa clay/marne/fossilised soils over cretaceous limestone – think Puglia or Coonawarra even! – that’s influenced by the golfo di Trieste, but also refreshed/battered by the NE Bora wind…is found the tiny 3.5ha cantina of Marko Tavčar (pronounced Taucher) at Az. Agr. Pietra!
The boutique domaine features an historical, 18th century cortile, constructed to shield the occupants from the Bora wine, which is where Marko, a former cuoco/chef until 2008, now ‘cooks up’ three grape expressions of his Kras/Carso region: Malvazija/Malvasia Istriana, Vitovska, & Teran/Terrano (a relative of Refosco del Peduncolo Rosso)
Bianchi are vinified in mastelli/tubs for 3 days on the skins (with light extraction), & then kept on their (reductive) lees in cement so as to minmise the amount of sulphur needed (c. 30 totale), with both wines undergoing MLF, while the Rosso sees some botte grande, & bottled unfiltered.