Mlečnik – Rebula, 2014

It is time to return to one of those Slovenian wine houses that have become an absolute synonym for quality, perseverance, and staying true to their philosophy by living it fully and thoroughly. Factors that by just mentioning them emanate respect. We’re at the Mlečnik homestead in Bilje, and we’ll look at their expression of the Rebula wine, produced in the challenging year of 2014.

This wine fully expresses the Mlečnik family philosophy as it follows all the natural cycles and is produced in respectful accordance with it. Grapes are destemmed, crushed and left to macerate without temperature control in open vats for four days. Fermentation is spontaneous with native yeast present on the berries skin.

After a gentle pressing, the juice is racked into large oak barrels where it matures for two years, also conducting malolactic conversion during this time. Finally, the wine is bottled without filtration and with minimum addition of sulphites and waits patiently in the cellar for at least the next three years before coming to the market.

When poured into the glass, this Rebula surprises with a deep, amber colour and dense texture.

Its aromas are intense and speak of a speciality. It presents scents of candied orange peel, Rhum pot, liquorice, black pepper, cinnamon stick, leather, resin, cedar and dry Mediterranean herbs.

A wine of reasonable softness and warmth, displaying ripe freshness and minerality, with a good amount of tannin that dries our mouths. An intense, full-bodied wine, showing elegance and lasting persistency in which flavours of candied fruit, wood, cedar, resin and sweet spices are recurring.

It is a wine of immensity, showing that if respect is what you nurture to nature, it will give this respect in return, allowing you to produce great expression even in the most challenging times. Such is this wine and one that still hasn’t said its last word as it has the power to evolve and refine further.

A bottle will cost you approximately 25 Eur and is available at Koželj, Raw wine, Vini viventi and Orange wine.