Meeting Marinko

UOU and the Consortium of Abandoned Vineyards

It began as an enigma. Whilst living in Eisenstadt in 2013, I met Peter Wetzer, an Hungarian winemaker who worked in the local wine bar. One evening, he put two unlabelled bottles on the counter and said “I think you might find these interesting.” He thought the wines were from Croatia, and made without added sulphites. They were given to him by his sister-in-law.

One was a Malvazija, the other a Merlot. Both tasted delicious, and I wanted to know more. A few weeks later, Peter gave me a scrap of paper with a name and a phone number scrawled on it¹. The winemaker was not Croatian but actually Slovenian. His name was Marinko Pintar and I could find him in Nova Gorica - the Slovenian town right next to Italian Gorizia.

A year later, I was nearing the end of a holiday in the Slovenian alps and had a couple of spare days to fill. I called the number and explained that I was a writer with a particular interest in orange wines. Marinko directed us to meet him at a cafe in Solkan, a suburb of Nova Gorica. We sat drinking coffee on a very warm October morning, but there was no sign of the elusive winemaker. Was this a wild goose chase?