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Slovenia: Refilling Wine Supplies, Lunch With Co-workers

Cviček is a Slovenian wine from the Lower Carniola region of Slovenia also known as Dolenjska. It is a unique wine, composed of different grape varieties including both white and red grape species. It is also the lowest alcoholic percentage of wine in Europe, of just 10%. Despite its long history of being known as a sour and poor wine, it has recently become a very popular drink local people and visitors into the region.

In the Middle Ages the Lower Carniola was a constituent part of the March of Carniola, and its wine was named Marvin (from German Marwein from Markwein), which was also mentioned by Valvasor, a seventeenth-century Slovenian historian. With the abolition of old viticultural system, people started to neglect vineyards, vine decay grew larger and larger and concomitantly, wine quality started to drop gradually. Becoming more and more sour, people referred to it as cviček (an old Slovenian word denoting very sour wine) and somehow the name stuck, allegedly also because of the synonymous German expression zwikt. After gaining independence the people living in the Dolenjska region began to defend the quality of the wine, and today it has become a popular casual drink for locals and visitors alike.

Wine from Lisec. It should last for a while

After work Primož, Aleš, Rok and me went to a rustic feast in Gostilnica in pizzerija Planika in Žale, Kamnik. On the plate we received some typical Slovenian dishes.

Lunch goodies