If you were some of the lightning-fast folks who grabbed their white several weeks back, time to try your luck with this fantastic rosé! The Štoka family (pronounced Shtoe-kah) has grown the native red and white grapes of the Kras (kraush) for over 200 years in one of the most extreme terrains anywhere in the grape growing world – filled with sinkholes, endless caverns, and howling winds (known as the “Burja”) – all in all, not where you’d think to find vineyards… And yet the wine made there is sooo good!

Just five kilometers north of Trieste, along the Slovenian/Italian border region of the Kras, or “Carso” as it is called in nearby Italy – you’ll find these vineyards. This is Europe’s first cross-border wine region – though with a total planted area of only 600 hectares, we’ll forgive you if you aren’t intimately familiar with it. The ancient oak forests that once dominated the region were pillaged by the Venetians and used to build ships (as well as the city of Venice). The rampant deforestation, coupled with the roaring Burja winds essentially stripped away any viable topsoils – to the extent that the remaining population would have to carry pockets of earth to enclosed parcels, protected by stone walls, in order to grow food and grapes.

Here, the Štoka family farms about 25 hectares (roughly seven hectares devoted to this grape, teran, known elsewhere as refosco, yet considered unique to this region for its growth on Terra Rossa soils, and the absorption of iron that gives this particular grape unique health benefits) – along  with smaller parcels of vitovska, cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, and merlot. Harvesting is all done by hand, then destemmed, and macerated for 8 days before pressing. The juice then undergoes a long and slow native fermentation in large oak barrels, followed by a full malolactic fermentation for weight and texture. Separately, a small portion of the juice spends some 10 months on the grape skins, to be blended back into the finished wine. The wine is bottled under bottle cap with a small amount of residual sugar to undergo its fizzy formation, then disgorged once to relieve a little pressure (ever seen a pet nat explode?) and then capped again. The residual sugar on this wine is around 1.9 grams per liter, which would put it in the Extra Brut category for Champagne – along with a high acidity, and a complex kiss of phenolic bitterness – this is bone dry in the mouth… and simply wonderful, as well!

The strawberries! Then, raspberries, ground cherries, salted watermelon, pineapple sage, with a sea spray salinity throughout. This is fresh, but just a wee bit savory, with a balanced acidity, and the tiniest kiss of tannin/phenolic bitterness I mentioned earlier. Interchange this with a light-bodied pinot noir – fattier fish, leaner white meats, and once summer rolls around – an heirloom tomato panzanella salad, with feta, and mint, and cucumbers, pickled onions… oh, my! It’s going to be epic… provided I can keep from drinking my entire store of this before then!

This small Slovenian winery has been one of the greatest and most unique discoveries in the wide world of all things bubbly for me personally – and one of the “surprise” hits in the entire history of Last Bubbles! We got all we could – but we’ve never not sold out of these fantastic wines, so move as quickly as you can! Get extra for summer… you’re gonna love ‘em!