6/5/25 - 

Radikon is a pioneer in Italy of extended skin-contact white wine – orange wine, that is (and a pioneer in making great wine with zero added sulfur). These are the best of their type - very consistent, fascinating wines, with finesse. Unlike so many imitators, Radikon wines have both a sense of place, and are clear expressions of their grape varieties. Originally a polyculture farm in the 1950s, Stanko Radikon focused on winemaking in the late 70s, bottling the estate's first wines in 1979. At first, stainless steel tanks were used for aging, then old barrels. THe turning point was in the 1990s, when Stanko first started experimenting with skin macerations with the wines, first with the Ribolla Gialla in 1995 and then with Oslavje in 1997. Eventually, as maceration times grew longer, Stanko settled on a 3 month duration for skin contact, and gradually stopped using any sulfite additions. 

Now,  Saša and his younger sister Ivana are continuing in their father's footsteps, keeping up the family traditions that have influenced countless generations of winemakers around the world. Their contribution to the resurgence and rediscovery of macerated wines from white and grey grapes is unmistakable. Truly, this is an iconic (or should we say ikonic) estate, and we are pleased to offer some classics today, along with wines from a few other estates in Friul-Venezia Giulia and on the other side of the border in Slovenia.   -Eben Lillie

Now that skin-contact wines are no longer so new to the scene, we've seen some of the hype die down, with a few producers scattered throughout the winemaking world having set themselves apart from the rest of the crowd, creating some iconic wines. Paolo Vodopivec was making his wines from extended skin contact well before the hype-train, and in a world now flooded with the stuff, we've still never tasted an orange wine anything close to his expressions of local varietal, Vitovska.

Located in the Carso, an extremely limestone-dominant plateau which straddles the Mediterranean border between Italy and Slovenia, this is terroir that lends tension and intensity to the wines. With year-long macerations, predominantly in clay amphorae, followed by even more extensive aging in barrel, Paolo's great patience and attention to detail in the cellar yields wines that are at once both rich and indulgent, as well as focused and thoughtful.    -Nicolas Douglas

Guerila Wines
Zmagoslav Petrič started the Guerila project in 2005, which became the first certified Biodynamic winery in Slovenia. It is a mixed agriculture farm in the Vipava valley (Vipavska Dolina), just east of the Italian border. He makes a range of wines from local grapes like Rebula, Malvazija and Pinela (which his father revived in the 1950s).  

Kobal
Kobal is an estate started by Bojan Kobal, located in the Haloze appellation in Štajerska, Slovenia, bordering with Styria in Austria. It is a viticultural area with a long history, dating back to Roman times, and was long considered one of the top vine-growing sites in Central Europe. His Bajta Belo wine on offer today is a fresh and delightful intro to the world of Slovenian skin contact wines!

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