Kabaj "Konde" Goriska Brda Slovenia 2009

During the period when Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia and most wineries sold their grapes to the cooperative, the prices were so low that many gave up grape growing altogether. Zvonko Kabaj saw a different path forward for those who still loved wine. “If the wine of Collio is world famous then certainly we have this same opportunity,” he said. Collio, just across the border in Italy, is identical to Brda in Slovenia. So in the 1970s he smuggled grape vines from Italy’s more pedigreed Collio appellation back across the border. In the 1990s his daughter Katja married Jean-Michel Morel, a Frenchman who grew up in Bordeaux and spent time making wine in Bordeaux and Italy. Jean-Michel and Zvonko replanted vines and did their best to acquire equipment, which was very difficult in the early days of Slovenia’s independence. Few considered the Kabaj’s winemaking aspirations a good idea. Zvonko passed away in 1997 but his pipedream has turned into one of the most respected wineries in the area,