Slovenia

The word penina

According to the government portal Slovenia.si, sparkling wine was first mentioned in Slovenia on 10 December 1853 in the newspaper Novice, edited by Janez Bleiweis, and the Slovenian word penina was used there for the first time.¹ On 30 October and 14 November 1997, penina was defined as a quality or top-quality sparkling wine with a protected geographical indication produced in Slovenia. The word entered Slovenian orthography in 2001.¹ The legal act behind the 1997 definition was not opened for this page.

As an EU member, Slovenia uses the EU categories for sparkling and quality sparkling wine; see EU categories.

Regions

The Ministry of Agriculture lists nine wine districts in three regions:²

About 17 000 ha are cultivated, and some 27 000 farms work vineyards.² The Ministry notes that Štajerska Slovenija is known for sparkling wines, that Gornja Radgona has a tradition of penina production of more than 150 years, and that Bizeljsko-Sremič and Dolenjska have good conditions for sparkling wine.²

Gornja Radgona

The Slovenia.si article calls the Radgonske Gorice hills the cradle of Slovenian sparkling wine and says that in 1852 the first 12 000 bottles were made there from local grape varieties by the method learned in France.¹

The same article names the pioneer once as Alojz and once as Anton Kleinošek, and gives 1882 as the year a company was founded. These details are not confirmed by a second source.

The producer Radgonske gorice states that it has made and stored wine since 1852, and lists its Zlata radgonska penina as 100% Chardonnay.³

Not covered

No official production volume for Slovenian sparkling wine was found.