Slovenian wines - the Ipavec family.

Under other circumstances I would consider this a commercial posting and against the rules of AFW. But in good conscience, I can't do this. I admire the fortitude of people like this who are trying to make a go of something like this after years of communist domination. I don't know that I will ever have an opportunity to purchase one of their wines but, by God, if I ever see one in a wine shop, I'll buy it, if nothing else, as a tribute to the ability of the human spirit to endure.

Vino

Indeed you cannot, in any conscience:

Thanks for the clarification. It's good to know that the rules of AFW are reasonable and flexible enough to take into account this kind of situation. I believe that this particular case goes beyond (in a good way) the intent of the rules you referred me to. We have no disagreement.

Vino

Vino

I happen to know a little about them. We tasted 71 wines imported to Austria this afternoon, among them three from Slovenia, one each from Dolfo, Movia, and Otmar Sturm. (I had better that these, but that's another story.)

M.

Hello!

Could you please tell more about these (Slovenian) wines? What do you think of them?

Ipavec

My response to your original posting was very poorly worded and I apologize for that. I was not angry or offended by your posting. Just the opposite. My intent was to express admiration for what you are doing. And as a subsequent poster pointed out, your posting was well within the bounds of what is considered acceptable in this newsgroup.

Thanks for your generous offer. I would love to be able to order one (or more) of your wines and have you ship it (them) to me. But it would be a futile act. If you were to attempt to ship a bottle to me, it would undoubtedly be seized by some US customs agent and probably destroyed. But I will remember the Ipavec name and if I ever see one of your wines on a shelf anywhere in the world, I'll buy it. I doubt that I will ever make it to Slovenia but if I do, I'll stop by for a visit.

Best wishes to your family.

Vino

In the mid 1990's I was involved in a project importing wines from the Czech Republic and neighboring countries.I was particularly impressed with the Frankova and merlot as "bargain" wines as well as the white varietals, but once the prices on USA retailers shelves rose and we tasted "better" wines, there was little commercial interest. At the time the BATF was very resistant to grape names like vavrenichke and frankova and held up the import of wines with those names on labels until they could establish that these varietals were legit(No one @ BATF knew about Jancis Robinson) so orders for the Thanksgiving and Christmas season stayed in Europe while our associates had to prepare monographs on indigenous grapes. I hope these problems have been addressed.

Buon fortuna to Ipavec family.

Hello!

Joe, just to remind you, Slovenia is not Slovakia. Slovakia was a part of Czechoslovakia (or something like that - I am not sure about the spelling), Slovenia was a part of Yugoslavia. We are from Slovenia. (I am sorry if I misunderstood you, but I just thought you were thinking of Slovakia, not Slovenia). However, thank you for your best wishes. I believe hard work, and devotion to wine making is and will stay more important even than Forutna! :)

Vincent, it is very nice to hear such experiences and I do hope you will have another chance to visit our country and when you do, you are welcome to our home as well.

Michael. Movia is in fact known as Slovenia's or at least Brda's (Slovenian part of Italy's Collio) best wine maker and also the most known in foreign countries. I believe it is all hidden in the hard work Ales (Kristancic) put into marketing and promoting his wines and of course in his and his father's vineyards. :) However, I hope and wish that in the 'not so far away' future I will read a post from you or maybe someone else from AFW saying that Ipavec wines are at least close to if not even better than Movia's ;)))

Vino. I did not know that sending a bottle to the US would end up like you described (we did not send a single bottle to the US yet, but I thought a bottle or two would not cause any problems...). If someone I know will be travelling to the US, I will try to arrange with him/her to take a bottle or two and then send it to you from inside the US (would this 'go through'?).

Regards,

Ipavec

I very much appreciate the offer but I'm afraid there is too much of a chance that someone would get into trouble. We have some strange laws in the USA regarding shipment of alcoholic beverages *to individuals*, both into the country and into certain states. I don't pretend to understand them all but I prefer to err on the side of caution. I wish you every success in finding someone who can import your wines into the USA legally. As I've said before, I'll remember the name Ipavec and if I ever see one of your wines on a shelf, I'll buy it.

Vino

Not only marketing and vineyard work: He is also a little genius in the cellar. Especially his barrel aged whites are exceptional. I really would like to see one of these as a pirate in a white Burgundy tasting!

M.

Hi!

I just want to apologize for my last post that was maybe a bit confusing. I wrote it and post it from my official laptop that is why another account was set.

Once again, sorry.

Regards,

Ip.

Regarding shipping sample to the US. In most states you can only ship wine to licensed importer not a consumer and the labels for the wines must be approved of by the US Government. However in my days as a broker only when a government inspector actually opened a container and looked on the invoice was the issue of label approval brought up and usually with only a warning. I know occasionally anxious wineries would ship me samples c/o an importer by air. Customs costs for this were quite high and usually were paid in advance by the winery. The best advise is to sign up for as many trade shows in Europe as you can and convince some importer to put your wines on their next container, the importer then can arrange to get samples to your consumer friends in the US in as legal way as possible.

Just last evening we tasted some wines from KRAINZ in the Ljutomer-Ormoz district. These were Sauvignon Blancs that were imported to Austria and brought over for us to taste here in the U.S., with the idea that we might import them. I had no reference point for Slovenian wine and was very impressed with the quality-for-the-price. I am sure M.Pronay tasted these as well? We were told that the Austrian producer Gross is lending some expertise, which I found very interesting.

At any rate, we are very interested in exploring the possibility of importing Slovenian wines, so I will send you another email privately. It really isn't a good idea to send bottles to individuals in the US (You are totally right, Vino) as even we have had bottles tied up in customs when they check to make sure we do have an actual importer license. And I am talking about a small amount of 6 bottles or so!

So in the best possible scenario, your wines will find a U.S. importer and then Vino can buy all he wants.

best, e. _________

Sorry, not yet, I'm afraid.

M.

Mr Pronay, would you be interested in tasting our wines?

I was talking to a Slovenian wine expert who was willing to taste all of our wines that we currently sell bottled. (6 different wines) However, when I tried to contact him over email to check if he is still 'ready to do it' I did not get a reply (for 14 days? and he is working in IT so he must check email at least 10 times a day?).

So... now... we are looking for an expert from Slovenia or one of the neighbouring countries (especially Italy or Austria) who would be prepared to:

- receive our wines for free (one bottle of each wine --> 6 bottles)

- taste all of them

- write an objective (good or bad!) evaluation for each wine

- let us to write his notes on our website (at 'our wines' category) (-) propose price range for each wine

If anyone is interested, please, feel free to send me an email (leave _spam_ out of the email address) or simply reply to this post :)

Please, keep in mind that the transport costs will decide whether we will send bottles to anyone at all :))

Regards,

Ip.