Wine Festivals of Slovenia - Refuscus Mundi
In celebration of Refošk and slovenian winemakers
A very nice evening.
what
Refuscus mundi - A wine festival to celebrate and present the Refošk varietal.
where
Held in Izola on the Istrian coast of Slovenia every February
(a little over an hour by car from Ljubljana)
why
A local, authentic festival with genuine and hospitable hosts and vendors
You’d be forgiven for not knowing the Slovenian town Izola. Hidden away amidst the minuscule 46.6 km of coastline on Slovenia’s south-west, the former fishing village is considered to a bit of a ‘Slovenian secret’. Most tourists in the region head to Piran instead, however, while Piran is historic, we were told it had lost its soul due to over tourism. We wanted something authentic and local. However, we would never have even heard of Izola save for a friend mentioning to us that there was an annual Refošk Wine festival held there every year. If we wanted to find some soul it seemed, we had to head to Izola.
Excited, we arrived at golden hour the night before the festival and strolled along the marina toward the town. The colourful Venetian buildings were bathed in warm afternoon light and the streets were filled with locals enjoying the unseasonable warmth. Every beautiful old winding street we ventured down we found ourselves asking; ‘How did we not know about this place?’
Saturday morning was spent drinking coffee alongside locals. We then enjoyed a long walk along the coast, weaving between young families and active retirees with walking poles. After demolishing some delicious pizza for lunch, we headed to the wine festival. Refuscus Mundi is held in a beautiful art and event space, restored from one of the oldest buildings in Izola (Manzioli Square, 1490). A wine bar occupies the ground floor and the rest of the space was filled with winemakers showing off their best Refošks. The aim of the festival is to lift the international profile and recognition of the varietal and give winemakers of all sizes a chance to display what they are lovingly creating.
Refošk is a big, bold and old-vine red. While we had sampled a fair bit of Refošk in our time in Slovenia, we were keen to get educated by the experts on the topic; the winemakers. While mostly from the winemaking regions of Slovenian Istria (Refosco) and Kras (Teran), there was also representation at the event by Croatian and Italian winemakers whom also grow Refošk. A few people referred to the drop as ‘black’ wine for its opaque ruby colour and noted that until recently was considered a ‘1 year wine’. We were told winemakers want to get that idea out of the heads of consumers. Especially considering that Refošk is the most widespread and best-selling varietal in all of Slovenia.
The set up for the event sprawled all 40+ exhibitors across three floors of the building. We could see workshops, local food and winemakers all represented. Some were there with only a single vintage on display from family farms, while across the room there were multimillion dollar producers with extensive displays on show. Prior to our arrival we had researched all of the exhibitors and pinned a few in particular we were interested in talking to. Starting with a visit to our friends at Bordon, we endeavoured to explore our list. Finding a winemaker involved moving from stall to stall, chatting with the growers and makers of this delicious drop. For us, this was the most exciting part of the night: we got to chat to the people whom spend their lives caring for this amazing grape and turning it into the delicious wine that we love so much.
As has been our experience throughout Slovenia, each person we spoke to was genuine and generous - by the end of the night I think we had made about 20 personal contacts along with various offers to stay in peoples homes with recommendations or connections for our onward journey. We had a wonderful chat with the young winemakers from MonteMoro, whom make some really interesting and delicious minimal intervention wines. We tasted wine with Goran Besednjak the ‘Refošk King’ (an actual award) and tasted his beautifully balanced organic Refošk. Almost every small winemaker we met taught us about the production of Refošk from vine to bottle. Whatever it is that they are doing with this grape is working.
The wine we sampled was exceptional and the noted lean towards ecological and biodynamics was a pleasant surprise to us. We were even told that Izola has its own Orange wine festival later in the year! This was really a demonstration of a community of winemakers working together to change the perception of the Refošk varietal. We sampled many glasses of wine over the course of the afternoon of different ages, barrelling and fermenting and can happily say that Refošk is much, much more than its reputation.
Our Top Picks
We spoke with Matjaž Babič and his wife Farah about their wine making philosophy and we were instantly in love with their process. Matjaž is making interesting, complex wines with only 7 acres on the Šalarski hills near Koper. He dedication to the traditional natural, low intervention processes was evident through his uncontainable passion when speaking about his wines. He is also experimenting with orange wines (which we love) and producing some stunning reds. We really loved the Refošk he had on offer and were both so happy to chat with them both about the wine they work so hard to make.
For tastings contact:
Triban 7, 6000 Koper – Capodistria Slovenija
wine@montemoro.si
T + 386 (0)41 921 086
With such a variety of vintages of Refošks, there is a reason Goran Besednjak was named ‘The King’. A humble and softly spoken King he was, talking us through his wines with great pride and dedication to the idea of ‘letting nature do what nature does’. The Bio organic certified winemaker is making some stunning wines; well balanced both in acidity and tannins. We learned a lot from Goran, and really appreciated the time he spent with us.
You can contact them via a form on their website here.
Before coming it was hard to find any information on this small family run ‘agrotourism’ farm's wines. We spoke to Primož Durcik, the son of the winemaker and learned (through drinking and listening) that they are making amazing Teran and even winning the 2018 gold medal at the Vino Slovenija Gornja Radgona (that is a mouthful). This tiny winemaker only has 4 hectares and full production from vineyard to bottling is done by the family. (Sorry for the terrible lighting on the picture, we did find a better one here).
For tastings or to stay at their on site accommodation contact:
tel: +386 5 764 00 28
e-mail: mail@petelin-durcik.si; petelin.durcik@siol.com
summary
Izola is beautiful, Slovenian people are warm and welcoming, red wine is delicious and even more so when you are drinking it with extremely passionate winemakers. If you have any questions of comments, hit us up below.
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