Kabaj "Rebula" Goriska Brda Slovenia 2020

During the period when Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia and most wineries sold their grapes to the cooperative, the prices were so low that many gave up grape growing altogether. Zvonko Kabaj saw a different path forward for those who still loved wine. “If the wine of Collio is world famous then certainly we have this same opportunity,” he said. Collio, just across the border in Italy, is identical to Brda in Slovenia. So in the 1970s he smuggled grape vines from Italy’s more pedigreed Collio appellation back across the border. In the 1990s his daughter Katja married Jean-Michel Morel, a Frenchman who grew up in Bordeaux and spent time making wine in Bordeaux and Italy. Jean-Michel and Zvonko replanted vines and did their best to acquire equipment, which was very difficult in the early days of Slovenia’s independence. Few considered the Kabaj’s winemaking aspirations a good idea. Zvonko passed away in 1997 but his pipedream has turned into one of the most respected wineries in the area, Italian or Slovenian. Kabaj is mentioned alongside names like Movia, Gravner, and Radikon as some of the most ageworthy, distinctive skin-contact wines in the world. We even have some longtime customers who named their dog “Kabaj” after visiting the winery a few years ago. The farming is equally world-class, with regenerative, no-till practices and no herbicides or pesticides. Horse manure is the only fertilizer and even organic sprays like copper and sulfur are used as little as possible. The winemaking is essentially pre-industrial and heavily influenced by Jean-Michel’s travels to Georgia in the 1990s, including a lot of amphora and skin-contact for all the whites.

Rebula is called Ribolla Gialla in Italy, but it is a grape that maybe best expresses Slovenia’s Brda region and the Kabaj oeuvre. Jean-Michel Morel says, “Rebula is the Queen of our region. She gives wine that tastes of the land.” It spends a month on 100% of the skins, and another three months on 20% of the skins. It then is aged for two years in neutral French barrique. It could be called orange wine but the color is closer to a tawny pink. Jean-Michel emphasizes the tea-like quality of the wine, and recommends drinking it room temperature, like a red. It is concentrated but has bright acid and a subtle, tannic grip. Savory, earthy notes of Comte, medicinal cherry, and caramel. It’s quite distinct but undeniably the result of painstakingly intentional work and heartfelt soul. Pair it with literally anything. Jonathan Kemp