Scrumptious, delicate, fresh are words you’ll mention again and again when on a Slovenia wine tour in Prekmurje. If you love white wine then this is a must-do wine tour. If you prefer reds then you might even be converted after this tour.
As red drinkers, we were not expecting such a memorable experience in this region and to come home with so much wine!
Well, if you didn’t know already, when you look at Slovenia on the map it looks like a chicken. Have a look:
This wine tour takes us through the wine region located in the head of the chicken. Specifically, the regions Prekmurje and Štajerska Slovenija
The whole trip is not just wine tastings as we did need to drive to get around, but everything is included in this map so if you are ever in Slovenia you can easily copy some of our plans!
Day 1 – July 13, 2020
Day 2 – July 14, 2020 (still to come)
Day 3 – July 15, 2020 (still to come)
Day 4 – July 16, 2020 (still to come)
Day 5 – July 17, 2020 (still to come)
Day 6 – July 18, 2020 (still to come)
Slovenia Wine Tour – Day 1
We woke up early to hit the road by 8am after a standard Slovene morning coffee.
We drove for just under an hour to the Rogla ski resort. At 1500 metres above sea level, it is unexpectedly chilly even in the middle of July! So oddly enough we went to warm up a bit with some hot food and coffee at Pesku Rogla.
I ordered a mushroom soup that comes with a surprise side called ajdovi žganci. Apparently, this is a traditional Slovene dish that you can add to your soup to give it more body.
If you visit Rogla in July, you will easily find some stunning views. However, the hikes are where it’s at. You should take the time to visit the beautiful 20 pond/lakes in the area (maybe not all of them ;).
The water is special because on top of this giant hill (mountain?) there is a bowl shape about 3 meters deep and this is what allows these bodies of water to exist. The water is made up of all rainwater captured in this bowl 1500 meters above the sea.
The hikes again are gorgeous, you will see lots of different trees, mushrooms, animals and even an epic view of the mountains in the distance.
Some advice, the hike takes about 1.5 hours (for us and we move at a pretty good pace) so make sure you have some comfortable footwear.
Along our journey, we met lots of dogs, cows, and a scared ferret. We also crossed lots of nice creeks (Potok I learned is creek in Slovene).
Once you go the distance, you can climb the lookout tower and have a nice view of the area.
From here you can take the pathways carved in the picture above to see the various lakes and ponds.
The ponds are picturesque with perfect reflections of the summer sky and water lilies floating on top.
If you take a closer look in the water, you might be lucky to see swimming pupek’s (Slovene) or newt’s in English. They are cute, little amphibious animals that I thought were frogs at first. Having both lungs and gills would be a pretty sweet life
On the way back from any mission, it’s traditional in Slovenia to stop for a coffee, so of course, we had a quick stop for coffee before hitting the road straight to Maribor!
Maribor is the 2nd biggest city in Slovenia and has a distinct river going through the main part of town with huge willows caressing the water.
Definitely a must-see and for more than the view, since Maribor hosts the oldest vine in the world, fittingly named “The Old Vine” and this is the purpose of our stop.
Quite a feat with the Guinness world record of 374 years old and counting. I think they actually expect the age to be around 450 now.
The cellar door is full of information that takes you through the history of the vine, the history of the region, and the types of grapes in the region.
The history was the most fascinating to me, specifically in the ’80s when the vine was close to dying and the people of Maribor worked to revitalize it and clean up the area around it.
This work paid off because today the vine is considered a National Slovene Treasure! It is so treasured that the wine from the vine cannot be bought.
The wine is saved for gifting to special visitors. For example, the Pope or Justin Trudeau have received bottles.
You can also apply for one of the baby vines if it doesn’t exist in your country yet. Something we are keen to apply for to bring back to Canada with us 🙂
It’s actually already in Australia in the Yarra Valley somewhere (FYI to my Aussie mates!)
After the history lesson, you can stop at the cellar door to try the wines within the wine region. This was a wine tasting to remember, highly recommended.
The lady serving us was the best. Sadly we did not catch her name 🙁 but if she sees this post, then I’m happy to give her a shout out!
She first took us through the options. You choose by tiers and the cost goes up with each tier of wine: Basic, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Each selection gets you 3 tastings, except Gold which comes with 5.
It had been a while for us so we figured to reach for the top-shelf stuff (all tiers were very affordable). I also figured Gold was the best value since you get to try a couple more wines!
However, everyone always wants into the Platinum club, so I asked for an example of the Platinum wine. She showed us a nice bottle and told us some of the info, but we still jumped for Gold. (Boring but important for later)
She presented us with some very good wines and she knew heaps about the wine region, including how each wine was made, tastes, and smells.
She mentioned working there for 10 years and it sounded like a pretty sweet gig as she tunes the wine selections to the individual. Based on what wines you are digging, she will grab the next bottle using that feedback.
We went through the 5 excellent wines and thought we were finished. However, we were having such a good time that we went through another few wines, including the platinum one she showed us earlier!
We really got on a roll with her, we were curious and she had lots of answers and really loved sharing the different wines. The wines we had were very unique, including wines that are biodynamic, organic, and even a couple of orange wines.
The Dolium orange wine is created from a natural environment where the producer even lets the birds and animals at the berries. The final crop includes what is left when the time is right to harvest. The wine surprised me with a burst of flavor and a smooth finish. The final results can be found here.
Biodynamic wines come from a special process which is in another post, but she mentioned that with this wine they do not pick the berries until they are fully ripe.
The result is picking a bit later than for a usual wine. You may even notice that the stems are a little bit brown and a few berries may have fallen off. The goal is here to pick at peak ripeness where the berries smell sweet.
It was a memorable experience for sure and a MUST wine tasting if you are in Slovenia.
The price for the Gold package is 12 euros each, but somehow we only got charged $19. Maybe because Ana was driving and was having tiny portions she charged us 1.5. Either way, it felt like a steal, especially considering we also got the sneaky Platinum package.
At this point, I was a bit tipsy (don’t tell mom) so we went for food and a long walk to explore the city.
We stopped at one of the first places we saw, which ended up being a Ćevapi place. Ćevapi is traditional Balkan food and is usually all meat, very classic in southeastern Europe.
This would be excellent for most people, but as Vegetarians our only option was the grilled cheese and we were too hungry at this point so we decided to go with it.
The grilled cheese dish turned out to be superb. It was halloumi plus tons of veggies and the traditional bread that goes with it. We couldn’t even finish our plates.
I also love that even though I only had a tiny bit left on my plate, the waiter asked if I wanted to take it away (classic Slovene people don’t waste good food!)
At some point during lunch, we realized that we forgot to actually see the “Old Vine”!
To be fair the vine is a bit sneaky because it’s actually right on the front of the building you enter.
I figured that the vine out front is strictly for decorative purposes and that the old vine would be outback locked away from the hooligans running the streets.
So we walked back and got our nice pictures.
Then we had a beautiful walk along the river in Maribor before heading off for our next wine stop.
Next stop was Doppler Winery
This didn’t pan out as they are only open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but we looked around and it’s worth a stop if you are there on the right day. The views are splendid from the patio on top of the hill.
We thought to go to Vino Gaube next, since we loved their wine at Stara Trta (The old vine), but again they were not open. This time we learned our lesson and checked Google first.
Instead, we drove around taking in the vineyards until we saw a sign with “Wine Road” on it and thought that’s our kind of sign!
We drove for a few minutes and didn’t see much until finally, we saw a little board with a house name and vines up on the hill. Finally!
We drove up the hill and no one was there, but the guard dog (who we couldn’t see) was barking like crazy. We were a bit uneasy to say the least.
However, a nice old man came out from around the house. Ana mentioned in Slovene that we are driving around looking for local wine tastings.
Sadly, he said we don’t do that, but he seemed curious about why I was so quiet. Ana mentioned I’m from Canada and then huzzah! the conversation started flowing.
He spoke wonderful English (which was surprising considering his age in Slovenia) and told us we have to stay and have half a liter of wine with him… Just a casual half liter …
Who’s going to say no to that. Plus the landscape was perfect, with a few horses out front, a patio with vines growing overhead to provide shade, and then vines further up the hill.
He went back to the cellar/house and brought out an off-dry (a little bit sweet) Reisling. This was refreshing in the high heat of summer.
He didn’t actually mention that it was Riesling, but I had a sniff and remembred our Old Vine lady mentioning that 40% of the region is Riesling. I asked him and he was quite surprised that I knew (lucky guess!)
We had a lovely chat over his wine and talked of him working in Australia during the ’70s which was a crazy coincidence considering Ana and I had just returned from Australia.
He also showed us the cellar. Very spacious, large, cool and well lit. The lights were even custom made for the cellar.
He had the wines all hung nicely on their side and they were all ancient. He said they only get bottles from here when its a birthday or something. Sounds like next time we need to come around for his birthday 😉
He mentioned there is a chance they are no longer good, so then its a game and they just grab another one
The bottles of course were all dusty and Ana found a sneaky shelf in the back with his custom labeled wines. He was such a nice old man and he got super excited to show us his custom labels.
After our tour of the wine facilities, we finally met the guard dog, Nike!
He looked like a big fluffy wolf who was actually super shy. This only made him cuter, and after a few spins, he came to see us and loved the attention 🙂
We made sure to grab a couple of bottles of his wine, free of charge after we adamantly tried to give him money. Again, he was just the kindest man.
We got some quick pictures with Julius (Yulie he likes to be called) and Nike before heading off to our final stop for the day.
We forgot our passports at home and because of COVID we were worried that we might not be able to check into our accommodation. Especially just starting our Slovenia wine tour
Luckily there was no issue and a driver’s license was sufficient (FYI) in case you are visiting.
We arrived at Wine & Tourism Valdhuber Apartments after a quick 10-minute drive up the road.
This place is spectacular. You will be instantly impressed by the building and the surrounding landscape. They have vines everywhere and a spacious patio with a few vine-covered tables matching the vineyard vibe.
They even have an automated lawnmower! This is something I have been waiting to see in real life, but have only seen at garden centers.
We enjoyed a final wine tasting where Ana could finally fully indulge her pallet (no more driving :). I don’t know how I escaped driving duties, but it’s better to not ask too many questions 😉
We were given an assortment of wines and a butter platter (first time I’ve had one of these), including pumpkin butter, mushroom butter and homemade butter.
This was heaven, though I was still stuffed from the Cevapi place, it really hit the spot for me.
The wines were good, but nothing that really caught my attention. In all fairness, it had been a long day and my pallet may have been worse for wear. I’d love to go back and try them again with a fresh pallet.
We were lucky enough to be served by the wife of the winemaker and she was a gracious host, even offering us a nightcap glass when heading off to our rooms for the night.
Not only that but also offering the bottle, which we kindly rejected after enough consumption for one day. There are really wonderful people in this region!
On our way to the spacious, cottage-like apartments we were greeted by Bambi having a snack in the vineyard 🙂
It was the perfect day to start our Slovenia wine tour!
If you need help planning your Slovenia wine tour, feel free to reach out and I can send some more details 🙂