Blažič

Slovenia

Mar 31

Written By Ilya Shchukin

About

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The Blažič winery is located in the heart of Goriška Brda, in Medana, in the village of Plešivo.

The history of the Blažič family dates back to 1890 when Borut’s great-grandfather, Peter Blažič, came from Austria-Hungary and bought the farm with old terraced vineyards where, together with his family, they made a living from growing grapes and fruit.

Unlike many of the historic wine regions in Europe, the geo-political history of where this farm was founded, drastically characterized the identity of this family estate.
While the Brda dialect of Slovenian is spoken here, so is Italian, and most families and friends have become accustomed to living and passing over both sides of the border. Throughout the past hundred years the Blažič family’s passports would change to a multitude of nationalities: Austrian, Italian, Yugoslavian, and then Slovenian – but they always found ways to maintain their farm through the generational changes and border shifts.
The new state borders after World War II cut directly through the Blažič's family estate, dividing it between two countries – the house with the basement remained in Yugoslavia, while all the rest of the agricultural land with vineyards were located in Italy. The border was guarded and not easily crossed, and it took great perseverance, and dedication of Borut’s parents (Ferdinand and Danica), to maintain the farm’s longstanding existence today.

Now, run by Borut, his wife Simona, and the occasional help from their small children, the Blažič family cultivates 10 ha of vineyards spread on the Slovenian and Italian sides of Goriška brda, with roughly two thirds being on the Slovenian side and the other third on the Italian side.

In line with the region’s identity, the production is focused on white varieties, mostly Rebula, Malvasia, and Sauvignonasse (also known as Jakot, Friulano, and Sauvignon Vert). In addition to viticulture, the family grows fruit trees such as cherries, figs, and apricots, as well as olives, and has been farming organically for the past 10 years, in transition to certification starting in 2020.

In 1993, Borut was the first of his family to produce and bottle wine under their own label. As Slovenia become closer to becoming an independent state, Brda’s was one of the first Slovenian wine regions to make a name for itself, due to its proximity to Italy.

In 2000, by both inspiration of Italian-side neighbors like Gravner and Radikon, as well as a happy-accident, Borut become (unofficially) one of the first Slovenian producers to produce white wines with skin maceration. He had just acquired some new oak barrels and did not want to mask the fresh wine purity with the intense new barrel flavors, so he began dedicating a significant portion of the families’ production to macerated wine. For some time, the family exclusively produced orange wines, but he wanted to see balance in his estate, so he evolved his production to make fresh and approachable style white wines, that still are macerated slightly, to deliver the best of both worlds. He still produces extended maceration whites, which are world-class amber wines and can hold up amongst the best in the world. All wines are fermented exclusively with native yeasts with fresh wines seeing 5-7 days of skin maceration, and “Selekjia” bottles, seeing 2-3 weeks.