The Truffle Hunter, the Olive Oil & the Oprtalj Hand

Klaudio Ipša was not born into wine. He was born into the forests of Istria — a man of dogs, damp earth, and the quiet thrill of the truffle hunt. Thirty years ago, Klaudio began hunting white truffles in the Motovun Forest with specially trained dogs, becoming one of the region's respected foragers. The forest, visible from the family home in Ipši, was his first classroom. But Klaudio was also a man of the land, and when the Istrian extra virgin olive oil revolution began at the turn of the century, he and his wife Irena turned their attention to the steep terraces around their hamlet. In 1998, they embarked on an ambitious project: restoring 100 old olive trees and planting 1,000 new ones, reviving a family tradition that had deep roots in the red soil of northwestern Istria.

Their son Ivan grew up among the olive groves and the truffle woods, helping his parents from a young age. But Ivan had a different passion — viticulture. He studied oenology and, inspired by the pioneering natural winemaker Giorgio Clai and his aged, macerated wines, proposed a new adventure in 2010: the family would plant their first vineyard. Klaudio and Irena agreed. The first vines went into the ground in Ipši that year, and the Ipša wine story began. It was a natural extension of everything the family already believed: patience, respect for the land, and the wisdom of letting nature lead.

The guiding philosophy is simple and profound: "We live and create in harmony with nature." The estate is organic certified, and every decision — from the varieties planted to the length of maceration to the timing of the harvest — is made with the ecosystem in mind. The family does not believe in forcing the wine. They believe in listening to the vineyard, the forest, and the seasons. For the Ipšas, natural wine is not a marketing category; it is a way of farming that honours the truffle-rich terroir beneath the Motovun Forest. Their wines are served at the estate with truffled pasta, local cheeses, and homemade bread — not as a luxury experience, but as a family meal.

The Ipša family's winemaking philosophy is rooted in extended maceration and ageing in wooden barrels — a method inspired by their friend and mentor, Giorgio Clai, one of the pioneers of Istrian natural winemaking. From the very beginning, Ivan insisted that the estate would produce exclusively macerated and aged wines — no fresh, simple whites rushed to market. Every wine undergoes longer maceration to extract phenolics, tannins, and colour from the skins, followed by ageing in oak barrels to develop complexity, structure, and integration. This is not industrial winemaking; it is Istrian viticulture as a family tradition.

The cellar practices are deliberately minimal. The wines are made from autochthonous and world-renowned grape varieties — Istrian Malvasia, Pinot Gris, Refosco, and Teran — farmed organically and harvested by hand. Fermentation is spontaneous, using indigenous yeasts from the vineyard. The maceration period varies by wine and vintage: the flagship Malvasia undergoes 22 days of skin contact before ageing in used oak barriques for 11 months. The Santa Elena White is an amber-coloured wine with complex aromas of ripe apricot, dried apple, pear, and acacia honey — a direct result of patient skin contact and barrel ageing. The reds are aged in wooden barrels for extended periods to soften tannins and develop the forest-fruit, cinnamon, and carob notes that define the Santa Elena cuvée.

The only addition is a minimal, practical dose of sulphites — enough to ensure stability for the journey from cellar to table, but not enough to mask the wine's natural character. The wines are lightly filtered when necessary, but the goal is always to preserve the living texture and microbial complexity that maceration and barrel ageing provide. The result is a portfolio of honest, structured, and deeply terroir-driven wines — not funky or experimental, but elegant expressions of high-altitude Istrian viticulture. As Ivan says, the best wines are the ones that need time to find themselves — and the Ipša family is willing to wait.

Ipša is not merely a winery; it is a family dream realised — the story of how a truffle hunter, his wife, and their son transformed a passion for the Motovun Forest into one of Istria's most respected organic estates, producing Flos Olei-awarded olive oils and macerated natural wines from the highest vineyards in the region. In an era when Istrian wine was defined by youth, volume, and commercial homogenisation, the Ipša family demonstrated that the most profound wines sometimes come from 6 hectares of flysch soil at 420 metres above sea level, fermented with indigenous yeasts, macerated for weeks, aged in oak barrels, and bottled with minimal sulphur. It is largely thanks to projects like Ipša that aged Malvasia, high-altitude Istrian reds, and organic olive-wine synergy now have a place in the global natural wine and olive oil conversation. The same hamlet that tourists pass on their way to Oprtalj has become, through their work, a source of some of the most honest, patient, and terroir-driven wines and oils in Croatia.

The legacy of Ipša is the legacy of the patient hand in Croatian agriculture. Klaudio is not a typical winery founder: he is a truffle hunter who restored 100 old olive trees and planted 1,000 new ones, who passed his love of olives to his son, who agreed when Ivan proposed planting vines in 2010, who follows organic principles without compromise, and who believes that the best wine is the one that is served with truffled pasta at the family table. He does not chase volume. He does not chase trends. He makes six wines — each one macerated, each one aged, each one a reflection of the Santa Elena altitude and the Motovun Forest humidity — and he makes them with the same patience that defined his truffle hunting. The minimal sulphur is not a compromise; it is a practical minimum that allows the wine to travel without masking its Istrian soul.

The future of the project is tied to the future of organic viticulture and olive oil production on the high slopes of northwestern Istria — to the growing recognition that the best wines and oils come not from the lowest valleys but from the most committed guardians of flysch soil, truffle forest, and ancient stone terraces. As the Malvasia continues to set the benchmark for orange wine in the Oprtalj area, as the Santa Elena reds prove that Istria can produce structured, age-worthy wines from high altitude, and as the Flos Olei-awarded olive oils bring a new generation of food lovers to the estate, the Ipša family remains what they have always intended to be: a family who lives and creates in harmony with nature — truffle hunters, olive growers, and winemakers who trusted the soil, the forest, and the altitude, and who built something enduring beneath the medieval town of Oprtalj. The dream is not finished. It is just beginning to age.