Paolo Vodopivec believes that ego is the greatest threat to good winemaking. "The first problem for wine producers is not oidium, it's ego," he has said. That philosophy shapes everything at his estate on the Carso plateau north of Trieste, where he devotes every hectare and every vintage to a single grape: Vitovska.
Backstory
The Vodopivec family has farmed the rocky Carso terrain for generations. In 1997, Paolo and his brother Valter began full-scale wine production and bottling as a serious endeavor. Paolo trained under neighboring legend Josko Gravner before developing his own approach, eventually transitioning from oak barrels to Georgian qvevri for fermentation and aging. He made the switch after a visit to Georgia, where he became convinced that amphora was the truest vessel for his wines. Today, he produces one to two labels depending on the vintage, maintaining the smallest possible footprint with the greatest possible attention.
The Region
The Carso, or Karst plateau, is a narrow strip of limestone and flysch soil stretching along the Adriatic coast between Trieste and the Slovenian border. It is a place of extremes: the Burja wind, a fierce northeastern gale, scours the vines through autumn and winter. Soils are shallow, rocky, and poor in organic matter. The Mediterranean Sea moderates temperatures, but the landscape is unforgiving. As Vodopivec describes it, "The Carso is the land of truth. Harsh, unpleasant, difficult. In a word, true."
Vineyards and Farming
Vodopivec farms approximately 6.5 hectares of Vitovska on the plateau at around 260 meters elevation. He plants at high density, over 10,000 vines per hectare, because each vine yields only about 500 grams of fruit. Farming follows organic and biodynamic principles, with no synthetic inputs, no irrigation even in drought years, and minimal human intervention. He views himself as an observer of nature rather than a controller of it.
Winemaking
All grapes are pressed with a traditional basket press. Fermentation and extended maceration take place in Georgian clay qvevri, without added yeast, sulfur, or any stabilizing agents. The wines are bottled unfiltered and unfined. Fermentation temperatures are kept relatively low to preserve aromatic freshness and bright color. The result is a wine of profound complexity, built through time and restraint rather than intervention.
The Wines
Vodopivec produces the Vitovska, Vitovska T, Solo, and in exceptional years the Origine. Each wine represents a different expression of the same variety from the same land, differentiated by vineyard selection, maceration duration, and time in vessel. All share a distinctive amber hue, saline mineral character, and rare depth that has made them among the most sought-after orange wines in the world.
