Expert’s Choice: Slovenia & Croatia

Slovenia

Time is a great lens to view the landscape and culture of a country, combining both the soil and climate, but also the human factor: the people who create the wines. Slovenia has just a tiny Adriatic coastline and is otherwise surrounded by Austria and Hungary to the northeast, Italy in the northwest and Croatia to the south. It’s a jewel of a wine country, with stunningly beautiful, hilly vineyards divided into three main regions.

Primorska in the west enjoys a Mediterranean climate and is particularly famous for its richly complex whites from international grapes like Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris, but also the versatile local Rebula (Italy’s Ribolla Gialla). Some of Slovenia’s red wine superstars are also based here, with Merlot ripening most reliably in the hills of Brda, but Pinot Noir also making a strong showing, especially in the wind-blown Vipava Valley.Slovenia’s Podravje region to the northeast is very different, sharing similarities with Austria’s Styria. It’s much more continental with sunny days, cool nights and long autumns making for vibrant, crisp, mouthwatering whites and some amazing sweet wines. Reds are less important, though some increasingly assured Modra Frankinja (aka Blaufränkisch, now believed to originate in Slovenia’s Lower Styria) and Pinot Noir are appearing. The southeastern corner of Posavje has been overshadowed by its more famous neighbours, but it has a promising future for sparkling wine, crisp whites and elegant reds.

Croatia

The Croatian wine scene is a complex mosaic of more than 200 different varieties, and the country claims as many as 120 indigenous grapes. Its 1,800km coastline and 1,200 islands have many nooks and crannies where local grape varieties were able to survive. This is a country with a very long wine history and the UNESCO listed Stari Grad plain on Hvar island is believed to be the longest continually cultivated vineyard anywhere. The landscape varies, from the rolling wooded hills and dramatic hilltop villages of Istria to the sweeping landscape of continental Slavonia (perhaps even more famous for its oak), to the sun-baked, rocky and often precipitously steep vineyards of Dalmatia and the islands where nothing much other than grapevines could possibly grow.

More than 18 million tourists headed for Croatia’s dramatic coastline and sunny climate last year, consuming plenty of wine, so exports are relatively insignificant, but worth the effort to seek out. Croatia’s most important grape is the white Graševina, largely grown in inland Slavonia, while the local Malvazija Istarska rules on the Istrian peninsula, offering fresh, bright, young wines as well as complex, textured skin-contact versions, sometimes aged in acacia wood or amphora. The red Plavac Mali is the most important red, holding sway in the southern warmth of Dalmatia, while the white Pošip, originally from Korcula island, is gaining increasing admiration for exciting whites.

See Caroline Gilby MW’s top wines from Slovenia and Croatia

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