Albanian Natural Wine & the Tunnel Hand

The story of SEB Balaj Winery begins with Artan Balaj, born and raised in Vlorë, the port city on Albania's southern Adriatic coast. After gaining a decade of experience in Italy — working in wineries in Friuli Venezia Giulia and Tuscany, and collaborating with nurseries for the production of vine cuttings — Artan returned to Albania in 2007. He began producing barbatelle for local wineries and managing vineyards, but his ambition was larger: to demonstrate that Albania, a country with immense ampelographic potential and centuries-old traditions, could produce wines of quality and honesty that rivalled those of Europe's established regions.

In 2010, Artan planted his first vineyard — Balian, covering 5,000 square metres in the village of Risili, 10 kilometres from Vlorë. For years he worked quietly, building knowledge and trust. Then, in 2018, the SEB project was formalised — born from the shared desire of Artan, Vincenzo Vitale, and Daniela Fabrizi to produce wines as they once were: wines that could tell the story of the land and the history of Albania. Vincenzo, a sommelier from Palermo with twenty years of experience travelling between Rome and Albania, brought his knowledge of Italian viticulture and a restless conviction that quality natural wine could be made on the other side of the Adriatic. Daniela, a Roman sommelier with a background in the biomedical sector, brought a scientific rigour and a mother's concern for the environment: 'The world we live in is an inheritance for our children, and SEB Winery represents our commitment to preserving it.'

The project was — and remains — a madness, as Vincenzo freely admits. Albania is not an EU member, which raises production costs. Skilled labour is scarce, and young workers, once trained, often leave for opportunities elsewhere. Land ownership is fragmented, and the cultural approach to wine is very different from Italy's. Yet the three partners persisted, driven by a shared love for the territory and a conviction that Albania's native grapes — Shesh i Bardhe, Shesh i Zi, Vlosh, Kallmet — could speak with a voice that no international variety could replicate. They found their cellar in a former railway tunnel built by Italian engineers in the 1920s, dug under the mountain near the Vlorë–Fier national road, where the temperature remains a constant 12°C throughout the year — a natural gift that needs no technology to preserve the wine.

For Artan Balaj and the SEB team, the cellar is a continuation of the vineyard's humility. The guiding principle is one of radical simplicity and anti-intervention: spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts, no selected bacteria, no enzymes, no temperature control, and no filtration. Sulphur is almost entirely absent — the wines are bottled with no added sulphites in most cases. The 1920s railway tunnel, with its natural 12°C temperature, provides the ideal environment for slow, patient fermentation and ageing without the need for artificial climate control.

The Orange — the estate's signature wine and namesake cuvée — is made from 100% Shesh i Bardhe, fermented in stainless steel for approximately 35 days on its skins with indigenous yeasts. After natural decantation, the wine matures for 16 months in Italian terracotta amphorae (cocciopesto), then ages in bottle for a further 6 months at 12°C inside the tunnel. The result is an amber wine of extraordinary complexity: candied citrus, honey, red-orange peel, and a distinct saline, mineral note from the Adriatic soils. On the palate it is rustic and alive, with prancing tannins and remarkable freshness.

The Plaku — whose name means 'the old man' in Albanian, in honour of the old winemaking system used by the elders of Vlorë — is a blend of 50% Shesh i Zi and 50% Vlosh. The two varieties were historically blended because the Shesh i Zi was rich in colour while the Vlosh had high acidity but little colour — together, they created a natural balance. The blend is fermented in steel with indigenous yeasts, with 35 days of skin contact and no temperature control, then matured for 16 months in a 1,000-litre chestnut barrel built by an artisan from the Roman Castles region, followed by 6 months in bottle at 12°C. The result is a wine of rich aromatic profile and great gastronomic versatility.

The Sason is named after the ancient Roman and Greek name for Sazan Island (Sason), visible from the sea-facing vineyards. It is a blend of Kallmet, Shesh i Zi, and Vlosh in roughly equal proportions, incorporating the three principal red varieties of Albania from north to south. After 25 days of careful skin maceration, the wine remains for 12 months in stainless steel, with natural decantation and no filtration. The result is a fresh, tannic red that captures the diversity of Albania's native patrimony in a single glass. The Lagune, meanwhile, is a saline, vibrant white made from the three most cultivated white varieties in Albania — Shesh i Bardhe (50%), Pules (35%), and Debinë i Bardhe (15%) — grown in vineyards near the Narta Lagoon and Vlorë's salt flats. After 20 days of maceration in steel, the wine matures for 6 months in concrete, with no filtration.

SEB Balaj Winery is not merely a winery; it is a proof that three people — an Albanian winemaker with Friulian training, a Sicilian sommelier with Adriatic dreams, and a Roman sommelier with a mother's conscience — can transform a forgotten corner of the Balkans into the birthplace of Albania's natural wine movement. In an era when Albanian wine is still dominated by bulk production, international varieties, and a cultural approach to wine that is very different from Italy's, Artan Balaj, Vincenzo Vitale, and Daniela Fabrizi have demonstrated that the same Shesh i Bardhe can be both fresh white and amber orange, the same Vlosh can provide both acidity and depth, and the same Kallmet can unite north and south in a single glass — if the farming is natural, the cellar is a 1920s tunnel, and the philosophy is one of minimal intervention, maximum honesty, and profound respect for the land.

The legacy of SEB Balaj Winery is the legacy of agricultural revolution. The three partners do not enter their vineyards to dominate them; they enter them to observe, to accept that the sandy soils and scarce rainfall will dictate the vintage, and to trust that the indigenous yeasts and the 12°C tunnel will do the work that no machine can replicate. The native varieties — Shesh i Bardhe, Shesh i Zi, Vlosh, Kallmet, Pules, Debinë i Bardhe — are not treated as commodities but as patrimony, as gifts from the Illyrian past that demand patience and humility. The 1920s railway tunnel is not a tourist attraction but a functional necessity and a spiritual anchor — a reminder that wine has been made in this land for millennia, and that the best wines are those that need no technology, only time, temperature, and trust.

The future of the estate is tied to the future of Albanian wine and the native vines that Artan continues to tend with natural patience. As the Shesh i Bardhe accumulates another decade of Adriatic wisdom, as the Orange finds its audience among drinkers seeking authenticity rather than spectacle, and as the Sason proves that Albania's north and south can speak with one voice, SEB Balaj remains what the three partners have always intended it to be: a farm that makes living wines — honest, nourishing, and deeply tied to the sandy hills and salt flats of Vlorë. The story of SEB Balaj is the story of a group of friends who looked at an abandoned railway tunnel and saw not a ruin, but a cellar — and who proved that the best bottle from Albania is the one that needs no explanation, only a glass, a meal, and the patience to let the native varieties speak.