SA vintner tests the waters in Slovenia

Looking for an investment opportunity beyond the borders of South Africa? Slovenia might just be the answer. Pieter de Waal spoke to Glenneis Kriel about part-time wine production in this beautiful Central European country.

- Glenneis Kriel

What was supposed to be a holiday trip to Croatia in 2017 gained a whole new dimension when winemaker Pieter de Waal and his wife, Lohra, took a wrong turn and ended up in the scenic countryside of Slovenia.

Well, they didn’t actually take a wrong turn, but as De Waal says, “why let facts get in the way of a good story?”

De Waal, unbeknown to Lohra, had planned at the outset to stay in Slovenia for most of their twoweek holiday as “it was far less touristy than Croatia” and Iona’s winemaker, Werner Muller, once told him it was “his type of place” because of the country’s “amazing people and excellent wines”.

He had also arranged for a university friend, Ciaran Rooney, an Irish-born Stellenbosch-trained winemaker who had been working for various wine farms in France, to meet them there.

While initially dismayed about the way her Croatian seaside holiday had turned out, Lohra was soon appeased when she discovered that the Slovenian coastline, although much shorter, is quite similar to that of Croatia.

She also fell in love with the forests: “I can hike for hours on end with no concern for my safety. There are places where, if you’re not careful, you can walk into Hungary or Croatia without even knowing that you’ve crossed an international border.”

A BOUTIQUE WINE FARM