Which however does not mean that the beautiful, green and fertile valley presently is in a hopeless situation. Quite the opposite. The Flavours of Vipava, a two-day festival which is organized annually at the idyllic Zemono castle prove that the future of the region is in the hands of the vintners, farmers and boutique producers of either premium bear, or Vodka Slovenia which is being sold and marketed in the USA, or in the excellent marmalades and liqueurs, and albumin cottage cheese. High quality country produce should be mentioned as well, from honey to dry meat products, from sheep yoghurt to lavender tea.
"It is not our intention to seek buyers from abroad, but to present and promote the Vipava valley," said the organizer of the festival Tanja Krapež for MMC. She insists on a relatively small number of participants at the festival – the optimal number is 33 vintners; it would be difficult to accommodate a larger number of exhibitors in the castle. But among these 33 a number of famous names can be found (Batič, Burja, Guerila, Štokelj with the current wine queen Špela Štokelj...), and some of the smaller vintners from the region, for whom the festival is a great opportunity to introduce themselves to the public mainly with the local species, e.g. pinela, barbera, zelen...
A healthy competition with Brda
The Flavours of Vipava have been organized for eight consecutive years, but it should be mentioned that the festival remains one of the few events of the kind in such proportions. The Vipava valley has not yet achieved the Goriška brda, where the local vintners had quite ambitiously, and with skill, started their intensive promotion (including organizations of wine festivals), therefore wines from Briška brda are better known abroad than the Vipava wines. Which does not necessarily mean they are superior.
Some wine experts claim that Vipava wines are a not yet disclosed treasure, and have a huge, not yet exploited potential. The organizers refuse to answer the questions regarding their competition with the colleagues close to the border with Italy. They only say that they follow their example as they respect their sense of promotion.
But in the last decade the people from Vipava made a big step forward. The quality has rapidly increased, and there are around one hundred of vintners on the Vipava wine road. A number of caterers is included as well, from the Gostilna pri Lojzetu of the chef Tomaž Kavčič at Zemono, the host of the event, and one of the three best restaurants we have, to Majerija in Slap, where the Vipava-Karst tradition is combined with a modern approach, Kraljestvo pršuta (i.e. The Kingdom of Prosciutto) in Kobjeglava with its prosciutto cured for two years...
Guests from Croatia
This year caterers and vintners from Croatia were invited to participate at the Flavour of Vipava festival as guests. They pleased the hungry drinkers with their supreme truffles and olive oil (Zigante from Istria); tuna tartar steak, beef tartar steak with sesame, and octopus salad with garlic sprouts (Kukuriku from Kastav); nettle polenta with raja fish pate and angler fish liver pate, and spring garlic sprouts with chicken, dried tomatoes and elder (Wine Bar Loza, Lovran); crab and raw shrimp salad (Rivica); anchovy with caper and raw bream slices (Johnson, Mošenička Draga). The guest from Croatia were a good shot, and their "tapas" disappeared in only two hours.
Among the invited visiting caterers Restavracija 1906 from the Upper Carniola could be found (trout Zupan style on pot barley), Vila Podvin (the modern version of “esih fleish” (meat salad) and cucumber curd with trout Zupan style), Tabor (salmon-avocado sushi). Fonda from Piran offered thin slices of raw sea bass, richly seasoned with olive oil and the flower of salt, and caterers from Vipava created all kinds of interesting dishes, from courgettes with Zidarič cottage cheese and prosciutto (Kraljestvo pršuta) to sirloin served on bread baked in a stone stove (Vipavski hram Restaurant), while the host Zemono offered tasty ham baked in dough.
The two days of the festival were also filled with some interesting workshops - Pelicon brewery joined forces with Julijana Krapež from the nearby Ajdovščina, resulting in boutique beers combined with chocolate sweets. A workshop covered several topics – wine species, wines from the species from the time of Vertovec, Vipava wines through the eyes of a Belgian buyer. To make the long story short: Vipava and the nearby vineyards (they spread over 2245 hectares, with 7.6 million vines), its farms and tourist farms can satisfy everybody's wishes.
Kaja Sajovic
Translated by G. K.
