From the atlas
Borut Blažič
At A Glance
- Location: Plešivo, Medana, Goriška Brda, Slovenia
- Founded: Family farm 1890; estate bottling from 1993
- Vineyards: Approximately 10 hectares across Slovenia and Italy
- Grapes: Rebula, Malvasia, Sauvignonasse (Jakot)
- Farming: Organic, in certification transition from 2020
- Production: 20,000 to 30,000 bottles per vintage
- Importer (US): Vinum USA
The Producer
Borut Blažič farms at Plešivo in Goriška Brda, Slovenia's westernmost wine region, on a hillside that sits directly on the Slovenian-Italian border. The family has worked this land since 1890, when great-grandfather Peter Blažič bought a farm with old terraced vineyards from the departing Austria-Hungarian administration. Borut was the first family member to bottle wine under the family name, beginning in 1993 after a century of farming without an estate label. Three generations now live and work on the farm together.
The estate farms roughly 10 hectares of vineyards split across two countries: around two-thirds on the Slovenian side, one-third in Italy. That split is not a commercial arrangement but a geographic fact imposed by post-war borders. The primary white grapes are Rebula, the indigenous variety most associated with Brda, alongside Malvasia and Sauvignonasse, the aromatic grape called Jakot in Slovenia and Friulano across the border in Friuli. Production runs to 20,000 to 30,000 bottles per vintage.
Place
Goriška Brda occupies the far west of Slovenia, sharing a geological formation and a hill system with the Italian Collio across the border. The terrain is steep, rolling, and south-facing in the best parcels, with clay-limestone soils that hold moisture through dry summers. The region has a Mediterranean-influenced climate moderated by Alpine air from the north, which keeps acidity alive in grapes that ripen fully. Rebula, the most widely planted variety in Brda, expresses that combination as a white wine with firm acidity, herbal lift, and enough body to carry extended skin contact without losing freshness. The Plešivo micro-location where the Blažič vineyards sit is among the warmer positions in Brda, close to the ridge line that marks the border with Italy.
Labels from this estate carry the Goriška Brda appellation designation. The cross-border vineyard holding means some fruit is grown in Italian territory, though the cellar and the name on the bottle are Slovenian.
Soil And Site
The Brda hills are built on a clay-limestone base with flysch deposits, a layered sedimentary formation common across both the Slovenian and Italian sides of the region. The terraced vineyards that Peter Blažič acquired in 1890 are the oldest parcels on the estate, with vine age and shallow terracing that limits yields and concentrates fruit. The Plešivo position benefits from good drainage on the slopes and afternoon sun exposure, both relevant to achieving full ripeness in Rebula without over-cropping.
Story
The farm existed for a hundred and three years before a bottle carried the Blažič name on the label. From 1890 through to 1993, the family farmed and sold their fruit or bulk wine without an estate label. Borut changed that when he began bottling under the family name in 1993, a decision that brought the estate into direct contact with the market and with the wine culture of the Brda-Collio borderlands.
Around 2000, Borut moved toward skin maceration on white wines, a technique then being revived with considerable force by producers just across the border in Friuli. He became one of the first Slovenian producers to work this way at a time when extended skin contact on white grapes was still an unusual choice rather than a recognised style. That decision shaped the range as it stands today: all wines fermented with native yeasts, the fresh tier spending five to seven days on skins, the Selekcija bottles seeing two to three weeks. The estate has farmed organically for approximately a decade, with formal certification transition beginning in 2020.
Vineyards And Cellar
The estate's roughly 10 hectares straddle the border, with the older terraced parcels providing Rebula and Sauvignonasse fruit for the flagship wines. Organic farming throughout means no synthetic inputs in the vineyard, which in a region with clay soils and humid summers requires careful canopy management to control disease pressure.
In the cellar, native yeasts drive all fermentations. Skin maceration runs at different lengths depending on the tier: five to seven days for the fresh whites, two to three weeks for the Selekcija range. The longer maceration extracts more tannin and colour from the skins, giving the wine a deeper amber hue, firmer grip on the palate, and the aromatic concentration associated with extended contact. The flagship Arancia is aged in oak for 42 months before release, then bottled unfined, unfiltered, and without added sulfites.
Wines
The range is built around skin-macerated whites in two tiers, with the Arancia sitting above them as the extended-maceration, long-aged expression.
The fresh tier whites spend five to seven days on skins with native yeasts. At this length, skin contact adds colour moving toward gold-amber, a light tannic grip that firms the texture, and aromatic depth beyond what a conventionally pressed white would show, without overwhelming the primary fruit character of Rebula, Malvasia, or Sauvignonasse.
The Selekcija bottles see two to three weeks of maceration. The longer time on skins pulls more tannin and phenolic extract from the grape skins, deepening colour toward amber-orange and giving the wine a drying, textured quality in the mouth alongside the herbal and stone-fruit character of the grapes.
Arancia is the top expression: a blend of Rebula and Sauvignonasse, macerated on skins, aged 42 months in oak, then bottled unfined, unfiltered, and without added sulfites. The oak ageing at this length adds oxidative character and rounds the tannic grip from the skin contact, while the absence of fining and filtration preserves the wine's natural turbidity and aromatic complexity.
In The Glass
Rebula from Brda opens with herbal and citrus notes, lemon peel and dried fennel, with a firm acid line running through. Skin contact adds grip and amber colour; a few days on skins shifts the texture from clean and bright to something more substantial and slightly chewy without losing the grape's inherent freshness. Sauvignonasse contributes broader stone-fruit character, peach and apricot, alongside a roundness that complements Rebula's more angular acidity.
In the Selekcija tier, the longer maceration builds phenolic weight: the finish dries, the tannic grip tightens, and the aromatic profile moves from fresh citrus toward dried herbs, quince, and walnut skin. The Arancia, after 42 months in oak, adds a layer of oxidative complexity over the maceration character: dried apricot, beeswax, and a long, slightly saline finish. Without fining or filtration, the wine carries a natural texture and a slight haze that is part of its character.
A Bottle To Understand It
Arancia is the bottle to start with. It is a blend of Rebula and Sauvignonasse, macerated on skins and aged 42 months in oak, then bottled without fining, filtration, or added sulfites. In the glass it is amber-gold with a natural haze, carrying dried apricot, quince, beeswax, and a light tannic grip that holds through to a long, saline finish. The oak ageing has absorbed and integrated the tannin from skin contact, so the wine reads as complete rather than austere. No conventional white wine clarity, no sweetness, no modern fruit-forward winemaking. Arancia is what happens when Rebula and Sauvignonasse from old terraced vines in Brda are given time and minimal intervention.
Anecdote
When the peace treaties were signed after the Second World War, the new boundary between Yugoslavia and Italy was drawn across the Karst and Brda hills with reference to ethnic and military considerations rather than property lines. For the Blažič family at Plešivo, the line landed in the middle of their estate. The house and cellar remained on the Yugoslav side. A significant portion of the vineyards ended up in Italy. For the next several decades, farming the Italian parcels meant crossing what was an actively guarded frontier: papers, checkpoints, the daily arithmetic of a family property cut by a Cold War border. The estate still straddles that line today, with roughly one-third of its vines on the Italian side of what is now a largely invisible boundary between two European Union member states.
Final Word
Borut Blažič makes amber-coloured whites from indigenous grapes on a hillside that two countries share. The estate's history runs from 1890 through post-war partition and a century without an estate label to a current generation farming organically and bottling without intervention. The Arancia is the clearest expression of all of it: old land, local grapes, long maceration, longer ageing, nothing added or removed.
Sources
- https://www.vina-blazic.si/?lang=en
- https://www.vinumusa.com/wineries/blazic
- https://rockjuiceinc.com/products/2018-borut-blazic-arancia