A visit to a small winery in Slovakia by Bruce Shore

A visit to a small winery in Slovakia, 26 April 2008

Bruce Shore

Slovakia, one of the newer members of the European Union, has been producing wine for more than a thousand years, though its products are less well known internationally than the wines of its western neighbor Austria.

The courtyard of the Chowaniec & Krajcirovic winery in Svaty Jur (Saint George), Slovakia. The office is through the door to the left, the wine cellar is entered through a door to the right.

On a Friday afternoon I had the opportunity to visit a small winery in village of  Svaty Jur (Saint George; I will not attempt to produce the proper Slovak diacritical marks), some 10 km north of Bratislava,  in the foothills of the Lesser Carpathian mountains. The village has many nicely restored 16th and 17th century houses, and was declared a historical monument in 1990. There I observed a facility unlike anything to be found in the US, while tasting wines that were similar to those I have enjoyed in Germany or even the Livermore valley.

As it turned out, this afternoon preceded the annual “name day” celebration of St. George, and already the main street of the village was lined with various booths where one could purchase a variety of edibles. Pork and chicken, with onions; various sweets. And assorted crafts. A stage was prepared for musicians in the center of the street, which was closed to auto traffic..

Wine grapes have been grown there, I was told, for 1200 years.The village is known as a wine town, similar to the small towns along the Weinstrasse of the Rhine valley in Germany. The similarity is probably not accidental, because many Germans lived in the area during the 17th century, and much of the wine culture derives from them, with influence also from Hungary.

The town appears in records as early as 1209 AD. A major event in the town history was when it was promoted to a free Royal Town in 1647. Around that time the local religious order built the main local church (of St. George) and a convent.  In those days it was not acceptable for the nuns to be seen on public streets, so a tunnel was constructed, under what is now the main street of the town, allowing passage of the nuns from their convent  up the inclined street to the church. (A simpler solution, you might think, would be to build the church and monastery adjacent to each other.) The tunnel had a series of sturdy vaults along it, cleverly constructed to allow passage of air, and in one of these ancient vaults, now underneath a house, stand the various containers of the wine of the firm of  Chowaniec & Krajcirovic

(their web site www.vinnepivnice.sk is available in English). It was there, under the thick ancient vaulted ceiling, that I was given samples of the wine of this area of Slovakia.

Juraj Krajcirovic

Winemaker Juraj Krajcirovic uses a glass “wine thief” to draw out a sample of wine for tasting, in the ancient vaulted room that serves for wine storage and aging.

This winery was started in 2001 byPeter Chowaniec and our host for the day, the winemaker Juraj Krajcirovic. Our host spoke no English, but the essence of his remarks and comments were translated from Slovak by my Bratislava host, Professor Vlado Buzek.   The winery had been operated by Mr. K’s grandfather, but during the decades of Communist rule the art of winemaking was lost; such vines as were allowed to remain were used to produce jug red wine by the collective farm that managed the local agriculture. With the return of private industry, the winemaker began, by trial and error, to rediscover the secrets of making fine wine, with particular emphasis on the white wines for which the area is particularly well suited. His stated goal, according to their literature,  is to bring back the times when the wines from these vineyards “were considered the best of the Austro-Hungarian Empire”. He has evidently succeeded; According to Vlado, who knows wines well, he produces some of the finest wines of Slovakia.

A sample of white wine, the specialty of the area, goes from the wine thief  into a glass for sampling.

The quality of the wine owes much to the careful tending of the vineyards. They say that “wine is made in the vineyards”, meaning that although the harvest occurs in August, all year long there are tasks in tending the vines. In May the tasks are weeding and turning over the soil to let the vines breathe, but each season brings its own special activity.

From the street it is not easy to discover the entrance, but my companion Vlado recognized it and rang the doorbell; soon a young woman opened the way into the courtyard of the establishment, where we met our host and were guided into the winecellar.  A photo shows the courtyard

Along one side of the small vaulted underground room were chest-high black plastic tanks holding wine. The winemaker used a glass “wine thief” to remove samples for us, explaining each time (in Slovak) something about the wine.

We began with a Mueller Thurgau, a wine that is very popular on the German Weinstrasse;   light with a nice fruity bouquet.  Then came a Veltlinske zelene, also a wine I have had in Germany. I then had a very nice Riesling, Rizling vlassky, a great choice for subsequent evening embibing as it turned out. At one time Rieslings were very popular with Livermore winegrowers, but now they are not so common. We concluded the white wines with a Chardonnay; very typical of this variety, very nice.

Winemaker Juraj Krajcirovic offers a sample of one of their fine white wines to your reporter, in the ancient vault that serves as a wine cellar and tasting room for the  Chowaniec & Krajcirovic winery

He had some nice reds too: a Frankovka modra, an Andre barrique, and a Cabernet Sauvignon. All quite nice.  As a very special treat I was given a sample of a wonderful red wine, Alibernet, full and sweet, a truly wonderful tasting experience.

Winemaker Juraj Krajcirovic fills a container of Chardonnay for my consumption.

Having concluded the tasting (my companion Vlado had to forgo this, because he was driving), it was time for purchase. Vlado ordered some white wine, whereupon the winemaker proceeded to use a long plastic tube to siphon out wine into plastic liter bottles, recycled from holding water, and screwed on the caps.

Two of the plastic bottles went with me, for evening consumption but Vlado also purchased some cases of properly bottled and corked wine to put away in his large wine cellar.

Winemaker Juraj Krajcirovic brings several cases of his fine wines which will be added to a wine cellar for later enjoyment.

The experience was not one that an uninformed tourist would be likely to have; you really need a knowledgeable local who can identify the door to the winery and can persuade the winemaker to show you his wares. But the experience was  unique: a charming ancient environment, in daily use for the business of wine production on a very small scale, and wines that are deservedly highly regarded by those who value wine — wine that cannot be obtained beyond the borders of the local region.