Sutor from the upper part of the Vipava Valley is an estate with a long tradition of viticulture and winemaking. There are extreme locations and weather in this part of Slovenia, and so are our wines, also because we try to be extremely consistent, precise and dedicated in our actions on the estate and to fulfill our mission in this way. All wines are therefore similar and at the same time different, but above all long-lived.
At the Lavrenčič family in Podraga, all wines are produced for the purpose of longer maturation in the bottle, so the age of the vines is extremely important for their wine cellar or the style of wine they grow. The foundations of the Sutor wine cellar in the upper Vipava Valley were laid by Anton Lavrenčič Jr. in 1933, when he bought a farm in Podraga. His grandson Mitja Lavrenčič, who manages it there today, says that his grandmother, of course, was not only involved in wine, as at that time all farms were self-sufficient.
In 1991, Mitja Lavrenčič, together with his father Edvard and brother Primož, who now has his own wine cellar Burja, reclassified the mixed farm into a wine farm. All three wrote the story together until 2008, when Primož went on his own – mainly due to space constraints.
Today, Lavrenčič and his family cultivate 5.5 hectares of vineyards, but not all of them are fully fertile. When the new vineyards are ready, instead of 15 thousand bottles, as they are now put on the market on average in a year, they will increase production to more than 20 thousand bottles.
Since Sutor’s wines are produced for the purpose of longer maturation or aging in the bottle, vinification is of course adapted to this.
All wines are spontaneously fermented. 10 to 15 percent of the grapes are picked earlier, in a so-called pre-harvest, to make a boiling attachment. We just spread the grapes and the fermentation starts immediately. The remaining grapes are immediately squeezed and the must is cooled, after two days both are combined in large barrels made of Slavonian oak, and in the case of the white primus variety in barrels, so that the must begins to ferment spontaneously. He leaves the wine in the barrels for a year, in between he very often mixes the yeast (batonnage). Then they pour the wine into a cistern and let it settle. They do not add any cleaners, they are bottled without filtration. Then they leave the wine in the bottle for quite some time before it goes on the market. Such wine is ready for many years of maturation by consumers at home.
Although the Lavrenčič family produces wine with minimal interventions in the vineyard and also in the cellar, they do not have an organic certificate. Think about it all the time. They know that the certificate could be obtained with minimal changes, as they already respect all the laws of organic production and more, but they are aware that they are really small and their production as well.
