Page 204 - Terčelj, Dušan. 2015. The Culture of Wine in Slovenia. Edited by Aleš Gačnik. University of Primorska Press, Koper.
P. 204
Culture of Wine in Slovenia
be kept at a constant temperature of around 12 degrees Celsius or with just a slight deviation
during the summer. Bottles should be lying down so that the cork remains moist, in a dark
place, without any external vibration so that the ageing process is slowed down. I knew a
dentist who had a house just north of Ljubljana. He invited me 30 years ago to have a look
at his cellar. He had a special place there, where he bottled the wine he had brought from
a winemaker. He also had a room that was insulated and air-conditioned with a constant
temperature of 12 degrees Celsius. I was surprised at his knowledge about how to store wine
and I admired his efforts in displaying a very professional attitude to wine.
Even if we stabilise wine and add plenty of
sulphur in order for it to last longer without
oxidation, it still keeps changing. The enzymatic
processes, although slowed down, still take
place: the wine is ageing and losing quality.
This of course happens at a different rate in
different wines, depending on the composi-
tion. When wine reaches its optimum quality,
it is advisable to drink it. This is why large
wine cellars with large stocks of high quality
wines occasionally check the quality and on
the basis of this make the decision about the
right time for selling each wine. Only a small
proportion is kept for the archive and the value
of this wine will be in the year of its production
rather than in its quality. A very suitable gift
for somebody’s 50th birthday, for example, is
a wine that is 50 years old.
While we are on the subject of archive cellars, Dušan Terčelj and Jože Kupljen in the Wine House,
where the large winemakers keep their best Jeruzalem-Svetine, 2003. Photo: Boris Barič, the
wines, I would like to mention my experience photo library of the Ptuj Regional Museum.
on a visit in July 1991 to the agricultural school
Landwirtschaftliche Fachschule in Haidegg
near Graz in Austria. We were unable to
organise an international wine assessment
in Ljubljana due to the fear of some foreign
wine tasters about the political changes in
Slovenia and so the assessment was held at
the above-mentioned school. The headmaster
was so delighted to be able to host this event
and all the foreign tasters that in the evening,
after the assessment was over, he invited us
to the school’s archive cellar, full of selected
top quality Austrian wines from all varieties
from every year since World War Two. Every
taster was able to choose any wine and open
it to have a taste. It was a unique, unforget-
200
be kept at a constant temperature of around 12 degrees Celsius or with just a slight deviation
during the summer. Bottles should be lying down so that the cork remains moist, in a dark
place, without any external vibration so that the ageing process is slowed down. I knew a
dentist who had a house just north of Ljubljana. He invited me 30 years ago to have a look
at his cellar. He had a special place there, where he bottled the wine he had brought from
a winemaker. He also had a room that was insulated and air-conditioned with a constant
temperature of 12 degrees Celsius. I was surprised at his knowledge about how to store wine
and I admired his efforts in displaying a very professional attitude to wine.
Even if we stabilise wine and add plenty of
sulphur in order for it to last longer without
oxidation, it still keeps changing. The enzymatic
processes, although slowed down, still take
place: the wine is ageing and losing quality.
This of course happens at a different rate in
different wines, depending on the composi-
tion. When wine reaches its optimum quality,
it is advisable to drink it. This is why large
wine cellars with large stocks of high quality
wines occasionally check the quality and on
the basis of this make the decision about the
right time for selling each wine. Only a small
proportion is kept for the archive and the value
of this wine will be in the year of its production
rather than in its quality. A very suitable gift
for somebody’s 50th birthday, for example, is
a wine that is 50 years old.
While we are on the subject of archive cellars, Dušan Terčelj and Jože Kupljen in the Wine House,
where the large winemakers keep their best Jeruzalem-Svetine, 2003. Photo: Boris Barič, the
wines, I would like to mention my experience photo library of the Ptuj Regional Museum.
on a visit in July 1991 to the agricultural school
Landwirtschaftliche Fachschule in Haidegg
near Graz in Austria. We were unable to
organise an international wine assessment
in Ljubljana due to the fear of some foreign
wine tasters about the political changes in
Slovenia and so the assessment was held at
the above-mentioned school. The headmaster
was so delighted to be able to host this event
and all the foreign tasters that in the evening,
after the assessment was over, he invited us
to the school’s archive cellar, full of selected
top quality Austrian wines from all varieties
from every year since World War Two. Every
taster was able to choose any wine and open
it to have a taste. It was a unique, unforget-
200
