My Dream Wine Fair

Looking back over 13 years of the Orange Wine Festival in Izola, plus this year's top wines

After my obsession with orange wines began in autumn 2011, people thought I was a nutcase. I spent the next few years scrabbling around for information that could help me make sense of this old tradition, publishing articles as I went.

Colleagues would give me a pitying look and say “It’s great that you’re writing about these wines, but you don’t really drink them do you?” They failed to understand that it was more than mere curiosity - I genuinely found the aromas, flavours and textures delicious. As I still do.

Wine professionals were often disparaging about the category in the early 2010s: “it’s just a stupid trend, it won’t last”, “no-one drinks these wines because they think they taste good”, “this will be over in a couple of years”. So every fresh discovery of an orange-focused grower was vindication, every byline I got into a magazine a small victory.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine there could be an entire wine fair dedicated to my new wine love. But it turns out that a group of friends in Slovenian Istria created just such an event in 2012. I was tipped off about the Orange Wine Festival in early 2015, via the most random of random connections: a natural wine distributor originally from New Zealand but then living in Montenegro. Gabriella Simmers connected me with the organisers, encouraged me to attend and even offered me a lift from the airport. I cancelled my other engagements and arrived in the pretty coastal town of Izola on April 24th, 2015, with little idea of what to expect.

The afternoon rushed by, as I tried desperately to taste as much as possible before the party atmosphere prevailed and spittoons became a distant dream. I met and tasted with countless orange wine legends whose names I had previously only read about - Dario Prinčič, Kabaj, Roland Tauss, Borut Blažič. It was the last time I saw Stanko Radikon presiding over a tasting table (cancer would claim him 18 months later).

The festival takes place in the picturesque Manzioli square, the Venetian seat of this bi-lingual, multicultural town. The team behind OWF has changed over the years, but the constants remain local journalist Sašo Dravinec, Dario Prinčič and the Zaro family, who not only make wine in the hills above Izola but also run the Manzioli wine bar in the square.

Matej Zaro was only 20 in the festival’s inaugural year, and as he diplomatically puts it “I had other interests than wine back then.” Now, he heads up the family’s winery and is the president of the OWF. He told me that even though he wasn’t really into wine in 2012 “I was amazed by all the winemakers at the festival. They were so proud, they were like rockstars.”

He realised that the goal of making wine in a sustainable, low-intervention way was what bound them together. “I started to see the emotions behind the product” he adds.

Dravinec had started making a list of growers from Friuli Collio, Brda and Vipava who were producing macerated white wines at the time. His original aim was to organise a tasting at Manzioli wine bar, but Bruno Zaro (Matej’s father) saw how sizable the numbers were, and said “this is more than just a tasting, this could be an entire festival!” And so it began.

Perhaps the focus on orange wine seems arbitrary to outsiders, but as Dravinec explains, it was this category that symbolised the movement towards natural, organically grown wines around the northern Adriatic. Radikon were hugely influential, and in Istra so was Bruno Rojac (the father of Uroš, who continues the winery today).

Talking with Dravinec and Matej Zaro, it’s clear that the OWF is more than just a tasting. It’s a cultural event, that especially in the early years was a vital meet-up for the area’s artisanal winemakers. Orange and natural wines were largely spurned by domestic customers at the time.

Dravinec recalls that 30 years ago in Slovenian restaurants “it was just a choice of white or red, and sweet sparkling moscato for birthdays.” But now, as Zaro explains “almost every restaurant or wine bar has a proper wine fridge with some organic or macerated wines. And they have good glasses. It’s a big change.” The festival has even spawned competition, with an Amber Wine Festival that now takes place in nearby Trieste at the end of May.

The pair constantly stress the importance of wine growing and producing in what they term “a nature friendly way”. The OWF has a charter that requires participants to farm using organic or biodynamic methods, to hand harvest and to make wine without the addition of yeasts or other aggressive interventions. Although the focus remains overwhelmingly on orange wines, pét-nats with or without skin contact are also welcome.

Despite the charter, there have been complaints that the OWF is too permissive in terms of the wineries it includes these days - perhaps this is why some growers such as Radikon no longer participate. But not everyone falls into the radical naturalista mould. Zaro is insistent that “we are about inclusion. Who are we to close the door to someone who is working hard?” Vineyard work without synthetics is a non-negotiable, but some wines presented at OWF might disappoint a hardcore natural audience.

Recent editions of the OWF, which also takes place every winter in Vienna, span a huge variety of wineries, mostly from Slovenia and Italy but with a healthy sprinkling of Austrians, Croatians, Georgians and more. This April, the special guest was Ian Hongjing Dai, someone I’ve widely tipped as China’s most promising natural winemaker.

The festival’s first edition brought together around 40 growers. Today, around 70 attend the Izola edition, and close to 100 participate in Vienna. The atmosphere this April was buoyant and joyful, with slightly more heads-down tasting over the first few hours before the event mutates into its full-on festival identity.

It’s hard not to be happy in the beautiful atmosphere of the town, with its historic buildings and dreamy views out onto the Adriatic. As Dravinec puts it, “we are Mediterranean people. We have sun, great food and wine. I think the package is pretty OK!” Not to mention that, despite my colleagues’ scepticism, orange wines are simply delicious.

Favourite wines tasted at Orange Wine Festival, Izola, 2025