In Slovenia, with Velika Lega, a new wine classification for Slovenia’s top wineries

Website: https://velikalega.com/about-us/

Slovenia is an interesting and diverse wine country. It’s a small country with some important neighbours, and a wide variety of wine regions considering its size. And there’s a producer alliance/classification that has emerged that is looking to shape its fine wine dimension: Velika Lega.

This is a private, collaborative effort with great energy. I visited Slovenia back in May 2023 to meet the five founding members. And this March, I was back again – the organization has now grown to 10, and so I visited the new members, and also caught up with the founders, to get a really good overview of some of the leading wines of Slovenia. Here, I’ll be writing up these visits in full.

The concept underlying Velika Lega is a three-tier classification of wines, with regional wines at the base of the pyramid that offer an expression of the wider region, then village-level wines that reflect the place in a narrower sense, and finally cru wines at the top that express the vineyard site. These single vineyard wines represent a chance for Slovenia to put itself on the fine wine map. This sort of hierarchical structure is one that any serious wine person would recognize, and it also helps in selling wines if the upper two tiers act as a guarantee of interest and hopefully quality. At the same time it recognizes the importance of regional wines. I think it makes sense.

But aside from this new classification that’s proposed, the most exciting thing is that it brings together some of the country’s most exciting wine producers. I really like these sorts of collaborative efforts.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be writing up my visits, and these will appear here.

VELIKA LEGA: SLOVENIA’S LEADING WINERIES