Tried these two Slovenian whites last night:
1. Vipava 1894 Malvazija VipavaVlly (12.5%; SarantyImprts/Stamford/CT; www.Vipava1894.Si; Lot L34) Hannes Sabathi/Marko Bencina; Vipava 1894/Vipavska Dolina/VipavaVlly/Slovenia 2023: Med.gold color; very light vaguely grapey very slight perfumed light stony quite vapid nose w/ no suggestion of Malvasia; soft quite bland/vapid bit metallic slight stony flavor; very short slight stony finish that tracks flavor; no Malvasia character whatsoever; one of the dullest/most vapid/bland wines I've ever had; not as bad as some natural wines but definitely an Oakland wine....there's no there there; way overpriced at $14.00 (TW/SF)
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2. Vipava 1894 Pinela VipavaVlly (12.5%; SarantyImprts/Stamford/CT; www.Vipava1894.Si; Lot L7) Hannes Sabathi/Marko Bencina; Vipava 1894/Vipavska Dolina/VipavaVlly/Slovenia 2023: Med.gold color; slightly more floral but light/bland/vapid nose; slightly tart bit metallic quite vapid/bland flavor almost identical to the Malvasia; a dull as dishwater/vapid/bland wine; way overpriced at $14.00 (TW/SF)
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More viperskurt from The BloodyPulpit:
1. These two are absolutely the poorest examples of Slovenian wine I have ever tried. They were vapid/bland beyond description. When I tried them again side-by-side blind later on, I could not tell one from the other. The next morning when I tried them, the Malvasia had a very slight hint of floral Malvasia, but they were still near identical in character.
Their Website has little information & some mis-information. This was supposedly the first wine cooperative that was started in Slovenia. In 2017, Hannes, a SauvBlanc producer in Styria teamed up with Marko and renamed the cooperative Vipava 1894 in honor of its founding. It still remains a coop and produces a number of other wines, but I expected these two to be the most distinctive of their wines. Distinctive they were not.
They claim the Malvasia & Pinela are indigenous varieties to the Vipava Vlly. Probably so w/ Pinela but the Malvasia is most likely the Malvasia d'Istriana, which originated further South in Croatia on the Istrian Peninsula, a variety widely used in Slovenia & Croatia.
The VipavaVlly is a beautiful growing area in lower Slovenia, but is a real under-performer in terms of the quality of their wines. They need to up their game.
I am doing a tasting of Slovene wines in late September for my SantaFe Winos group. I saw that Total Wines had three Vipava 1894 wines (the 3'rd being a Pinot Grigio), I'd never tried them, so thought I'd give them a shot. Whatta waste. I seldom shop at Total Wines because they mostly carry commodity wines that are of little interest. Their prices are nothing special. Most of their European wines comes thru Total Wines Saranty Imports. My experience is that most of Saranty Wines wines are pretty dull stuff. These two fully exceeded my expectations for dullness.
Anyway, totally avoid the Vipava 1894 wines. I am.
Tom