Best Wine Bars of Ljubljana
Ljubljana, though tiny, boasts some of the best wine bars in all of Europe. While some are heavily over-priced and not worth your while, there are several that truly hold something special. We spent a week sampling them all to find the best place to drink good natural wine when in Ljubljana.
Wine Store Štorija
Is it a bar? Is it a wine shop? Is it the best place to taste natural wine in Slovenia? It’s all of those things, and much, much more. Storija Wine Store is located one street back from the famous canal of Ljubljana and houses some of the most exquisite natural wines you’re likely to find anywhere in Europe. While not a bar in the traditional sense, David at Storija sells wine by the glass and the bottle; you can sample both at the long communal table inside, or take a glass of skin-contact pinot gris outdoors and watch life on the street roll by. David carries around 2000 different varietals at any one time, with a strong focus on hyper local, bio-dynamic producers, making some of the more interesting wines in Slovenia. We spent a solid three hours at Storija, trying more than our fair share of excellent wines. I would strongly encourage you to go with an open mind and a ver open wallet; we left with four bottles after drinking one at the shop. I’d strongly anyone who hasn’t tried any skin contact or pet-nat wines to give them a try here - David is an absolute expert, and will guide even the biggest novice through to making a selection of something decent. If you want to read more about Storija, I wrote a post about our night spent there over here.
Address: Trubarjeva cesta 17, 1000 Ljubljana
Hours: Monday - Friday: 11am - 8 pm. Closed Saturday/Sunday.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Wine-Spirits/Wine-Store-Storija-566733290393424/
Wine bar Šuklje
Sukle was our first stop in Ljubljana. Located centrally and just by the canal, Suklje is a refined yet casual wine bar. The wine here also focusses heavily on Slovenian producers, but you’ll also find a few Italian and French varietals kicking around as well. Of particular note is their house wine, under the ‘Suklje’ label - their Refosk and Blaufrankish is excellent, with extremely subtle flavours and strong, delicious notes. The staff at Suklje are young, knowledgeable, and more than happy to help you select wine - they all speak English and are really proud of the Slovenia wine that they sell. I’d encourage you to scan through the menu cards on each table, here you’ll be able to blindly choose wine depending on what ‘musical mood’ you’re in. Feeling like classic rock? They’ve got you covered. Something more complex like Jazz - there’s a wine for that too. With competitive prices and a very stately interior, you’d be hard pressed to find a better place to bring a date in all of Ljubljana.
Address: Breg 10, 1000 Ljubljana
Hours: Monday - Friday 9 am: 9 am -12 am. Sunday: 9 am - 4 pm.
Website: http://winebar.suklje.com/
Wanna learn more about the best winery in Slovenia? Click here!
Movia vinska klet
Owned by the famed Movia Wine company, Movia Vinska Klet is a stately, low-light wine bar, set a street back from the main drag of Ljubljana. If you are yet to try wines by Movia, or looking for a classy spot in town to try a few wines, you can’t go any further than this. Movia wines are an absolute standout - they make high quality wine, their Merlot and skin-contact pinot gris are both stand-outs. Wines by the glass wont set you back more than 4 euro here, and you can also try radikon wines by the glass, if you know how rare this is, you should already be driving there now.
Address: Mestni trg 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Hours: Monday - Saturday: 12pm - 11pm. Sunday: closed.
Website: http://www.movia.si/en/ljubljana-wine-bar-shop
TOZD
Hear me out here. Tozd, through technically a café, also carries some excellent wines, most of which are raw, unfiltered, and very tasty. While incldvorniuding Tozd on a ‘wine bars’ list may seem like a stretch, I’d argue that the fact that they carry anything by Heaps Good Wine ensures that they certainly know what they’re doing. The wine list here is really small, but the wines they do carry are excellent, and pair extraordinarily well with a canal-side seat - of particular note is the Pinot noir by the aforementioned heaps good wine - an absolute steal at 3 euro a glass.
Address: 1000, Gallusovo nabrežje 27, 1000 Ljubljana
Hours: Monday - Friday: 9 am - 1 am.
Website: https://m.facebook.com/TOZDbar/
Dvorni Bar
Now, Dvorni may have a slightly less trendy vibe than some of the other joints on this list, but to their credit, they carry some remarkably good wine in their bar, and some even better wine in the shop-front next door. While Dvorni seems to cater to the tourist crowd more so than the other spots on this list, it is still an excellent place to sample some orange wine from Slovenia, or to have a go at some of the fuller-bodied reds that Slovenia is starting to become known for. A perfect place to come for a wine before or after dinner. Ignore the neon ‘Heineken’ signs hanging by the back doors - the wine here is classy, well-priced, and poured by staff who care.
Address: Dvorni trg 2, 1000 Ljubljana
Hours: Monday - Saturday: 9 am - 12 am. Sunday: 5 pm - 12 am
Website: https://dvornibar.net/
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