Variety is the specific characteristic of the Slovene viticulture. A wide spectrum of soils, terrain profiles and microclimatic conditions described in previous chapters have provided for a wide choice of wines and methods of production. Lively relief, with numerous small hill, which is the prevailing profile of most of the viticultural areas, makes individual vineyards small as varieties of vines are planted only on micro-locations particularly appropriate for them.
A large portion of the Slovene wine is still produced for home consumption, in small vineyards yielding just a few hectolitres annually. But even those who market their wine tend to cultivate only small areas - vignerons with ten hectares or more are quite rare.
Over four hundred winegrowers are registered in Slovenia, counting only those who bottle their own wines. This chapter lists sixty-four and is therefore by no means exhaustive. It was compiled primarily to illustrate the diversity of Slovene vignerons, their selection of grapevines, and the wide spectrum of winegrowing techniques. All of the winegrowers listed have won awards for the quality of their wines at wine fairs and exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad.
I hope to provide the reader with some insight into the baffling variety of labels encountered in the wine shops of Slovenia.
