It seems that Botticelli's Venus, when she feels like having a good glass of wine, takes the trouble to cross the eastern border and stop in Slovenia. More precisely in Gorjansko and at the Cotar Winery. Not being satisfied by Piedmontese, Tuscan, Umbrian or Apulian wineries, Venus is therefore unpatriotically open to the Wonder of the Slovenian Karst and its wines.
Let us therefore try to understand whether the Wonder that everyone has in their minds and about which there is so much talk these days is that of the hills that one encounters once one has crossed the border of Friuli Venezia Giulia to reach the rugged territory, about 10 kilometres from the sea, on which the Čotar family has planted its house and vineyards. And a winery created in 1974 from nothing, from rock and the little red soil that covers it. Eighteen plots of land on which no pesticides or herbicides are used, and therefore no concessions to industrial viticulture. More than seven hectares of crops planted by loosening hard, rocky soil and adding soil brought back from sinkholes. Little soil, maximum 40 centimetres, which gives the production character and also makes it less easy. The first wines were the red Teran and the white Kraško belo, marketed in 1990. They were joined by two sparkling wines and a meditation wine called Sladkominka, made from Malvasia grapes of different vintages.
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When organising a wine tourism weekend in the area, a comfortable bed for the night could come in handy. In this case, the choice falls on the village's agritourism, Krasberry, which promises a flat in a bucolic setting squared, topped off with very mature homemade ham, cave cheese, homemade bread, vegetables from the garden, strawberries and various types of special vinegars. In short, an adequate base for tasting Cotar wines, albeit at the risk of finding oneself in some promotional tourist film, perhaps French or Israeli.
If you donʼt want to limit yourself to wine tourism, you can explore the trails and forests surrounding the village, perhaps with a stop at the Austro-Hungarian military cemetery, which is part of the Walk of Peace trail that connects more than 300 monuments in a unique path more than 500 kilometres long, from the Alps to the Adriatic.
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