Ducal

Wines with soul, for soul.

In the 1980s, Mitja was one of the most promising mountaineers / alpinists of our former state of Yugoslavia. In 1991, under the walls of mountains above Trenta, which he had climbed so many times, he bought an old estate which he turned into a wonderful tourism story, now known as “Kekčeva domačija”. Alpinist perseverance, discipline and intransigence also contributed to the success of his new role – tourism businessman. In 2007, they received the award for the best tourism product in Slovenia. There is nothing left to chance at Mitja. His workocholic part has already become a small urban legend.
The day after receiveing the prize – the ceremony took place in Maribor – Mitja and his wife Joži went see the magnificent vineyards on Svečina hills. They soon noticed an old, decaying homestead with an old wine cellar and hectare and a half of the vineyards – mostly welschriesling (laški rizling).

Mitja immediately felt a new challenge and the purchase of the property followed quite quickly. The new family story was also a challenge for son Tim, who’d just completed a very successful career as a professional football player. He is today permanently present on the estate.
In the following years they planted a hectare of chardonnay, intended for sparkling wines and bought 3,5 hectares of vineyards on the nearby Špičnik hill. Last year they bought four more hectares of plots in the immediate vicinity of the cellar, where they planted a hectare and half of pinot noir, while the rest will give space mostly for welschriesling vines.
Mitja and Tim approached winegrowing and winemaking with the same enthusiasm as tourism business and their sports careers. They’ve created beautiful symbiosis between the individualism of the alpinist and the team spirit of the football player.

Ducal cellar

Our cellar house with tasting room, surrounded with beautiful vineyards, reflects both – traditional and modern architecture. The central part of our winery is more than a century old wine cellar. We recently upgraded the space and built a new cellar and other premises around the existing one. It comprises rooms with wooden barrels, concrete egg containers and Georgian vessels made of clay – qvevris. Since we age our sparkling wines on lees in bottles for at least two years, the cellar also boasts a special place intended for ageing our bubbles.

100 years old cellar & Wines from amphoras

Some wines are obtained according to thousands of years old Georgian method in so-called qvevris (clay amphoras) buried in the soil. In qvevris vine grapes must ferment into wine, together with skins and everything else that grape berries hold. We leave the wine in contact with skins for eight months. After that we press and move wine to large wooden casks where they age for the next two to three years before bottling.

Ducal wines

Our wines are vinified from optimally mature grapes from the vineyards on the slopes of breathtakingly beautiful Svečina hills. From day one we’ve treated and worked vines and land with love, care and according to organic principles, for which we received a certificate in 2016. Ducal wines show precision, often great sharpness and tension and last but not least – beautiful complexity, resulting from the fact that we harvest about 20 percent of the grapes on which noble rot – botrytis has developed. Botrytis penetrates grape skin, which makes the grapes partially dried, thus the juice in the grape more concentrated. In addition, botrytis brings a characteristically gentle oxidative aromas, which is generally more known from the finest sweet wines. Simply put, this is some kind of maceration on the vine. When they go on the market, our wines are already rounded up and ready to enjoy, but our experiences also show that they are also long-lived and more than suitable for aging. Ducal wines always express the character of our micro location, while maintaining the main characteristics of each variety. They are precise, complex, and thanks to beautiful acidity and minerality offer amazing freshness and balance.