SLOVENIA

Slovenia’s renown in the wine world, such as it is, derives primarily from its proximity to the northeastern Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Goriška Brda, like neighbouring Collio and Colli Orientali, is known principally for white wines powered by vivacious fruit and freshened with acid from cooling sea breezes. The rebula grape, called ribolla gialla in Italy, is an elusive character. It frequently wants extended skin contact to bring out its dewy pine forest, yellow plum and green berry notes, a practice that has been wholeheartedly embraced on either side of the border.

Vinous seer Aleš Kristančič has taken his family’s 200-year-old estate and set it ablaze with experimentation. Compared with Lunar, his flagship rebulachardonnay orange wine, his varietal rebula delivers a gentler orange profile, vibrant with yellow cherries, cider apples, lush mosses,

First tasted in 2016, when it was far subtler, this is now intensely honeyed and fragrant with candied lemon peel, succulent florals and dense resinous herb notes. On the palate, a warming sweetness spreads like marmalade.