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Merkator p.o. Metlika Cesta 15. brigade 2 8330 Metlika phone: +386 68 58-261 fax: +386 68 58-070 |
Merkator KZ Metlika still functions primarily as a cooperative winery. The company owns twenty-five hectares (61.8 acres) of vineyards that yield an average of two hundred tons of grapes annually, mostly Modra Frankinja and Laški Rizling. Twelve hundred tons of grapes are purchased from contract growers. Average annual production of wine is nine thousand hectoliters (237,780 gallons).
Janez Trdina, a noted 19th century Slovene writer from Bela Krajina, warned his countrymen that the wines of the area required good cellaring, but few took his advice. Only in 1979 did the Merkator winery raise its standards of production, and ever since their wines have been gaining respect.
Merkator KZ Metlika produces approximately equal quantities of red and white wines. Modra Frankinja, Žametna Črnina, and Šentlovrenka are blended to produce the traditional Metliška Črnina - some four thousand hectoliters (105,680 gallons) of this richly coloured wine are made annually. Metliška Črnina is rich in acids and ages well; although this wine can be purchased while still young, the winery ages some of it in barrels and bottles and offers it as an arhivsko vino which is more mellow and balanced. Modra Frankinja and Žametna Črnina are the base for their light rosé, and recently the winery has been offering a young wine made from Modra Frankinja.
Belokranjec is the winery's best known white blend, made from Kraljevina and Laški Rizling.
Laški Rizling grapes are their most frequent source of special quality wines. Their special pride is their first Ice Wine, prepared in 1986, which has won a number of awards and citations.
Apart from numerous medals from wine fairs in Ljubljana, Maribor, and Gornja Radgona, Merkator KZ Metlika also received the Maison de Qualit\' e awarded by the Order of St. Fortunat in 1991.
The Merkator winery in Metlika regularly sells bottles from its archives, so good vintages are worth remembering: wines dated 1979, 1983, 1986, 1993, and 1994 are all worth sampling.
