
Photo: Mihaela Majerhold – Ostrovršnik
We’re heading back to the wine cellar Sutor today to taste one of their best wines, the remarkably refined Chardonnay, which Mitja and Edo have been meticulously producing for years. Chardonnay was also the wine that introduced me to them, and I’ve been a fan ever since.
Grapes are coming from three smaller plots, planted at different altitudes and aspects. One is at the hills’ peak, another facing south on midslope, and the third facing west, with the soil changing from flysch to flysch with layers of clay and finally reddish coloured soil with clay.
Chardonnay grapes are hand-harvested at the same time and vinified together. Whole bunches, a good 80 %, are gently pressed. The remaining 20 % of grapes gets destemmed and only healthy; whole berries are put in large oak barrels with free-run juice to ferment.
A quarter of the Chardonnay is then decanted into new French oak barriques, and the rest in used ones. We’re speaking of top-line Cadus barrels, where the mine matures for one year with constant stirring of fine lees also undergoing malolactic conversion. Ultimately the wine is racked into stainless vats to clarify before finally being bottled without filtration with minimum addition of So2. It has to wait for six months and finally we can taste it.
The wine boasts a crystalline, golden yellow colour and thick texture.
It displays an intensely pleasing palate with aromas of ripe peach, yellow apple, pineapple slices, dried yellow flowers, vanilla, roasted hazelnuts, caramel, butter, anise, cinnamon and butter crust pastry.
The taste is sumptuously intense, with pronounced softness that is balanced by freshness and a mineral saltiness. Slightly spicy in the finish. Medium to full-bodied with accentuated elegance and long, lasting persistency. A fantastic exemplar of this noble grape variety that pictures a smile on your face when sipping it.
If thinking of a Chardonnay from Vipava valley that this one is like money in the bank. A bottle will cost you approximately 17 Eur, and you can order it at eVino, Wine101 or Zambuni Wines. It will keep its shape for at least the next seven years.
