Goodbye Slovenia

- With an age of over 400 years it is registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest vine in the world. You don’t believe it?
- It symbolises the rich wine culture of Maribor, Štajerska and Slovenia.
- Its scions grow on almost all continents and in numerous places in Slovenia.
- Its grape, the sort Žametovka is one of the oldest domesticated noble wine sorts in Slovenia.
- The 35 to 55 kg symbolic annual grape harvest is bottled in 2,5 dcl glass bottles, designed by the famous artist Oskar Kogoj, that represent a precious protocol gift - annually more than 100 bottles are filled.
- Its wine matures in Maribor’s wine underworld, in Vinag’s wine cellar, which is one of the largest and oldest classic wine cellars in Europe.
- It is the starting point for 3 wine roads and wine –cultural trails of Archduke Johann, which intertwine over the hilly, wine growing surroundings where there are lots of wine shops and tourist farms with excellent white sorts and Štajerska delights.
- Throughout the year, in honour of the vine, a cycle of events unwind From Vine to Wine, the ceremonious Pruning of the Old Vine in the early spring, with the bestowal of scions to selected cities to St Martin’s Day.
- Ceremonial grape harvest of the Old Vine  is the highlight of the Old Vine Festival that shows the rich wine, as well as fruit, culinary and ethnological culture of Štajerska.
- The vine grows in Lent, the oldest part of the town down by the river Drava; on the frontage of the Old Vine House, a temple of wine traditions and culture, an exhibition-event room and a tourist information centre. Stroll along the banks of the river Drava  to the queen of all vines!

Vine genetics experts in Paris also confirmed the authenticity of the age of the Old Vine, along with precise professional measurements by Slovene experts. The vine was planted at least 400 years ago, probably somewhat earlier. Its Methuselah state is also confirmed in paintings of Maribor dating from the years 1657 and 1681, which are kept in the Štajerska Provincial Museum in Graz. In the pictures the frontage of the house at Vojašniška ulica 8, built in the 16th century, can be clearly seen, and even then it was already lushly overgrown with today’s venerated Old Vine. Just as in those days the Old Vine still today clings to the trelliswork or “brajda”, as the wooden support is called in Štajerska.

Historical points of interest about viticulture in Štajerska

The wine growing Slovenske gorice and vineyards on the slopes of Pohorje have a rich
past. Wine was made here already in antiquity, to which the first written records from
approximately 400 years BC, from the time of the Celts, bear witness. With the arrival of
the Romans the vineyards expanded, and then with the fall of the Roman Empire the
vineyards were also destroyed. Only with the settlement of the Slavs were the fields and
vin
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