16 editor-picked estates growing Sivi Pinot in Brda.
Where to taste Sivi Pinot in Brda: the estates that grow it, how the region expresses the grape, and how to book a visit.
Kristančič family cellar at Ceglo with 25 hectares of vineyard straddling the Slovenian and Italian border, organic certified since 2004, fermented without added yeast and bottled unfiltered.
Tip: Tastings are by appointment: five wines at 40 euros a head or nine at 55 euros, both opening with the Puro sparkling.
Family cellar at Vipolže that began bottling in 1989 with 3,000 bottles and now fills about 60,000. Three tiers run Klasik, Lex and Kolos, plus single-vineyard wines from Kozana and Fojana.
Tip: Ask for the Single Vineyard wines, named after the specific parcels in Kozana and Fojana rather than the grape.
Medana estate running an inn and an organic cellar on the same site since 1918. The wines are long skin-contact whites, among them Ortodox, Quela and a bottling of the local Verduc.
Tip: The kitchen keeps unusual hours: open Monday and Saturday midday, closed Tuesday to Thursday, dinner Friday and Saturday.
The Dobrovo cooperative cellar, built in 1957 and owned outright by its members. It works 1,400 hectares of vineyard for 400 grower families and ships to 26 countries.
Tip: A self-guided tasting of 24 samples costs 20 euros and runs weekday afternoons at 13:00 or 14:30, with a guided cellar walk at 14:30.
Neblo farm run by Franc and Borut Kocijančič on seven hectares at 75 to 160 metres, mostly terraced. Output is about 50,000 bottles from two red and six white varieties.
Tip: The Brjač vineyard is picked last, in the final days of October, and feeds the Merlot Brjač bottling.
Cellar at Gonjače named for the owner's great-grandfather. Matjaž Četrtič began working the family vineyard in 1992 and built the house around Rebula.
Tip: Three ranges sit side by side: Klasična for varietal wines, Época for the skin-contact bottlings including Amber Gris, and Brutus for the sparkling.
Small Kozana holding that bottles wine alongside freeze-dried fruit and preserves under the Skrje and Liopicon names, and takes visitors for tastings by arrangement.
Tip: The farm sells fruit and jam as well as wine, so a tasting here usually comes with something from the orchard.
Snežatno farm-stay with an organic cellar, a kitchen built on Brda dishes and eight guest rooms named after the grape varieties grown on the property.
Tip: Both the tasting and dinner need booking in advance, and vegetarian or vegan meals can be arranged the same way.
Kozana cellar with organic growing and two guest rooms, looking north across the hills from Gredič to Šmartno. Tastings run at five or ten wines with local snacks.
Tip: Only two double rooms, with a two-night minimum from May to September, so book well before harvest season.
Vipolže farm that dates its winegrowing to 1923, when Valentin Keber and Andrej Benedetič bought the Brgolišče plot. Ten hectares now sit across twelve separate sites.
Tip: Cherries and olive oil are sold alongside the wine, and the tasting hall looks straight out over the hills.
Biljana family cellar keeping whites in stainless steel and reds a year in wood, plus a traditional-method sparkling called Marcus made from Chardonnay.
Tip: The tasting room seats sixty indoors and thirty outside, and the cellar also runs a shop for buying by the bottle.
Tastings at the Štekar family farm above Snežatno, poured with plates built from the kitchen garden, the house chickens and their own cured meats.
Tip: Slots run Thursday to Saturday between 16:00 and 19:00 and have to be booked ahead.
Tastings at the Kristančič family cellar on the border ridge at Ceglo, poured with house salami or prosciutto, cheese and olives. Booking is compulsory.
Tip: Tasting lunches and dinners with a cellar tour can be arranged separately, and bottles can be bought during the tasting.
The cooperative's amber wine, blended from the three Brda whites at 12.5 percent: Rebula twelve months on skins in wood, Sauvignonasse a month in steel, Sivi Pinot three days in amphora.
Tip: Taste this before spending forty euros on a small-estate amber wine. Each variety is fermented separately and the Rebula does the long maceration on its own.
Pinot Gris grown on Brda marl and bottled without skin contact in the Klasična range, a counterweight to the Amber Gris the same cellar makes in its Época line.
Tip: Buy it alongside the Amber Gris if your budget stretches: same grape, same slope, two completely different wines.
Pinot Gris from the Ceglo estate the Kristančič family has held since 1820, fermented without added yeast and bottled unfiltered like the rest of the range.
Tip: The estate runs to thirty hectares, twenty-five of them vines, planted along the border strip where Brda meets Collio.