Vino Kupljen – Loona, 2018

Tonight we’re returning to the Svetinje hills, where Samo Kupljen meticulously cares for his constellation. Tonight we’ll have a look at his Sauvignon Blanc, the one from his Stars of Stiria line named Loona.

We’re at a special lieu-dit named Mihalovci. The soil is composed mostly of sandstone with white quartz crystals at an altitude of 220 meters above sea level with southwest exposure. Thanks to the mark of these crystals, the name Mihalovci will change to Kristal in the following years. If you remember, Samo Kupljen follows low intervention methods to look after his grassed vineyards.

Grapes are hand-harvested with optimal ripeness. They macerate for 36 hours in specially arranged tanks, ant the juice then ferments at low temperatures for four weeks. The wine is then left to mature for six months in new, French barrique barrels on fine lees. Stirring them regularly when they stop floating. The only time you hear sulphur is when bottling, where just the right amount is added.

This results in a Sauvignon Blanc of strawy yellow colour, with a golden border and a relatively dense texture.

Its bouquet is pronounced, mostly fruity, evoking peach, apricot, pineapple, lemon peel, jasmine and linden blossom, sweet spices, roasted almonds and a slight note of quartz.

The taste is graceful, soft, and rounded with freshness and slightly spicy minerality—full-bodied and lasting, of lusciously seductive elegance.

A wine that shows a sumptuous, oriental aromatic profile that enchants with its elegance and finesse. It will keep on spoiling the palate of drinkers for the next five years. You can get it at Koželj for little less than 16 Eur at Koželj or Deliz.

There’s a reason this wine bears the name Loona. It reminds Samo of his ex-girlfriend, an Iraqi woman, from the times when he was studying in Germany. She invited him once over for dinner, and when he entered the apartment, the scents of spices brought him to the Orient. This is the connection with the aromas of this wine. Samo said that as we use crosses, they use the moon, which is how the name was born.