Posts Tagged Čotar

Branko and Vasja Čotar

Čotar winery and vineyards are located in the village of Gorjansko, 5 km from the Adriatic sea, which sits on a rocky limestone plateau between the Vipava River Valley and the Bay of Trieste. The landforms are called karst, named after Slovenia’s Karst region.  The father and son duo, Branko and Vasja Čotar, made their first wine for their own restaurant, which proved very popular and later they decided to dedicate themselves exclusively to vinegrowing and winemaking. The first bottled vintage was 1988.

The soil is Terra rossa is typically found in regions with a Mediterranean climate. Similar type of soil can be found in La Mancha in Spain and Coonawarra in Australia. The vines are cultivated in environmentally friendly way, officially certified organic. The vineyards are planted equally with red and white grape varieties. The reds are Refosco, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and the whites are Malvasia, Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Vitovska.

In the winery they use exclusively indegenous yeasts, without the addition of selected strains and apply no filtration whatsoever which quite evident in the final products as the wines are usually slightly cloudy. The family makes two lines of wine, Čotar and Dražna, according to the aging period in the cellar.