Goriška Brda

Goriška Brda is a fold of low hills on the Italian frontier, terraced with vines and orchards and dotted with stone villages, and the comparison with Tuscany is lazy but not entirely wrong. The region is one of the centres of the modern orange wine movement, where white grapes, above all the local rebula, are fermented on their skins for weeks or months in the way reds are, producing wines that are amber, tannic and divisive, and several of the producers here are internationally known for it. Conventional whites and merlot are made too. Šmartno, a walled hilltop village restored to its stone bones, is the picture-postcard stop, and a lookout tower at Gonjače gives the view over the whole patchwork to the Julian Alps. The cherries in late spring are a local institution.

History

The hills were long part of the Patria del Friuli and later of the County of Gorizia. They cover about 120 km2 and have about 7,000 inhabitants, with around 60% of the land and 80% of the people in Slovenia, all in the Municipality of Brda, and the region produces mainly white wine (Wikipedia, Gorizia Hills).

What's there

• Orange wine cellars - rebula fermented on skins, tasted where it is made.
• Šmartno - the restored walled hilltop village of stone houses.
• The Gonjače lookout - the tower with views over the hills to the Alps.
• Cherry season - the late-spring harvest the region is known for.

When to go

May to October is the pleasant season, with cherries in late spring and the harvest in September, when cellars are busiest and most interesting. Many small producers receive visitors by appointment only, so book ahead rather than turning up.

Good to know

Most cellars are small family operations that need a booking, and simply driving between villages hoping for open doors will not work. Tasting means drinking, and Slovenia enforces a strict drink-driving limit, so arrange a driver. Orange wines are an acquired taste and some visitors dislike them entirely, which is worth knowing before committing to a day of them.

Nearby

The Vipava valley is another wine region nearby; Italy's Collio is directly across the border.