Wine from the Red Earth of Kras

Matej Švara's winemaking journey began in 2010, when he started working a small parcel of land in Komen, a village in the heart of the Kras region. [^265^] Kras is a unique landscape — a limestone plateau that stretches from southwestern Slovenia into northeastern Italy, characterised by its red earth, underground caves, and a climate that is simultaneously Mediterranean and continental. The region has been shaped by millennia of geological processes, and the terra rossa soils that define it are the result of limestone bedrock weathering into a clay-rich, iron-oxide-laden loam that is both fertile and distinctive. [^258^]

Matej works his 1.5 hectares pretty much all by himself — a one-man operation that demands physical labour, patience, and an intimate knowledge of every vine. [^265^] He tends the vineyard at his own calm but steady pace, refusing to rush the process or cut corners. This is not a commercial enterprise driven by volume or market trends; it is a personal project, a livelihood, and a statement of belief in the power of small-scale, hands-on agriculture. The vineyard is his world, and he moves through it with the quiet confidence of someone who has learned to read the land, the weather, and the vines as others read books.

The Švara family roots run deep in this region. The Karst has been a winegrowing area for centuries, with indigenous varieties that have adapted to the specific conditions of the plateau — the red soils, the wind, the temperature swings between day and night, and the scarcity of water. Matej's work is a continuation of this tradition, but it is also a departure from the more conventional approaches that have dominated the region. He is part of a small but growing movement of natural winemakers in Kras who are returning to pre-industrial methods, rejecting the chemical shortcuts and technological interventions that have become standard in modern viticulture.

In the cellar, Matej Švara's process is equally low-tech and respectful of natural processes. After manual harvest, the grapes undergo spontaneous fermentation with indigenous, ambient yeasts — no selected yeasts are added, no enzymes, no artificial aids. [^255^] [^258^] Maceration is left to nature; the temperature is not controlled. [^255^] The wines are aged without the use of wooden barrels, which would impart exogenous flavours and tannins. Instead, Matej utilises small glass demijohns (damigiana), often 54-litre vessels, for extended maturation — a method that preserves the primary aromatic and mineral characteristics of the grapes and terroir without the influence of oak. [^258^] After the demijohn ageing, the wines spend a short period in inox (stainless steel) containers before bottling. [^258^]

The finished wines are unfiltered and contain minimal free sulfur dioxide — typically in the range of 2-4 mg/L, with a total of around 10 mg/L. [^258^] This technical approach aims to produce wines that are a pure expression of their origin: the terra rossa soils, the indigenous varieties, and the biodynamic farming that nurtures them. The result is wines that are alive, evolving, and deeply connected to the place that produced them. They are not polished or homogenised; they are honest, sometimes challenging, and always authentic.

The Malvazija is an orange wine from Malvasia — light maceration on the skins creates a wine that is amber, textured, and savoury, with the aromatic complexity of the variety and the mineral backbone of the Kras. [^264^] The Vitovska is made from the indigenous white grape of the Karst — after squeezing, the juice undergoes 12 days of maceration in tubs, then ferments in 54-litre glass demijohns, creating a wine of crisp acidity, herbal notes, and a distinctive saline minerality. [^261^] The Teran is the red face of Švara — made from the indigenous Refošk variety, it is a wine of deep colour, peppery spice, and extraordinary acidity, with an iron-like minerality that speaks directly to the terra rossa soils. [^258^]

Matej's wines are not for everyone, and he does not intend them to be. They are wines for those who understand that beauty often lies at the edge of convention, and that the most memorable experiences are often the ones that defy expectation. They are wines that improve with air, that evolve in the glass, and that carry the imprint of a single man, a small vineyard, and a profound belief in the power of nature to make wine without interference. In a world of industrial wine production, Matej Švara stands as a reminder that the best wines are often the most honest — and that honesty requires courage, patience, and a willingness to let go.