This wine is from the Goriska Brda which means hills of Gorizia (Gorica in Slovene), a now Italian city. It is a border area between Italy and Slovenia. Sometime after WWII they divided this area up and Italy took the city of Gorizia which had a lot of Slovene inhabitants. The hills sorrounding the city were also carved up. In Italy its known as Collio ("home of Italy's finest whites") in Slovenia its Goriska Brda. In facts its one area and Slovenia has about 70% and I think the best vineyards which are also less contaminated and hillier than on the Italian side. Anyways...
Borut Reja is a young, humble wine producer who farms 5 hectares of grapevines. When I went to visit him he had a lot of back vintages. He's not a great marketer, but I wouldn't say his wines are shabby. I've had a few. (And some delicious grappa too - with cherries macerated in it, herbs, apricots, etc.)
I was not expecting much from his 2001 Sivi Pinot (Slovenian for Pinot Grigio)- who has ever heard of ageing Pinot Grigio? - but in fact, wow, good stuff. Not over the hill at all. Rich color, dark yellow. The nose is nice, kind of a yeasty, champagney, bread crust nose. The mouth is very good, medium bodied, tasty, balanced and characterful finish, with that Slovenian fresh water accent. Believe it or not this went great with some super fresh sausage (they killed the pig next door yesterday, no lie, a real butcher of course) with some Ajvar (a Balkan spicy cream of red peppers and vegetables.) The point is this wine went down. It passed the Kermit Lynch test: the bottle is empty.
Cheers,
Agostino