Keltis Mario Natur is a sparkling wine of beautiful freshness and fruity juiciness. Bubbles are tiny and velvety. The scent conjures up yellow apple, pear, some meadow flowers. Dry sparkling wine (brut nature). On the palate, the aforementioned fruit, a slightly salty minerality and shy notes of ageing on lees (brioche pastry) are repeated. One of the best sparklings of Slovenia.<\/p>\n
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“From the very beginning of my involvement in viticulture and winemaking, I have been driven by the same desire, or philosophy if you like. Together with nature, to create the best possible harvest,” says Marijan Kelhar, who decided thirty years ago to focus the family farm mainly on viticulture. The latter has a long tradition in the house, as the ancestors of the present owners built the first wine cellar in 1776. The basis for the present one, which is now part of the family house, was a wine cellar built in 1834.<\/p>\n
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The Kelhar family lives and works on the farm, which is situated at an altitude of 350 metres, making it the highest vineyard farm in Bizeljsko. It is a region of Lower Styria, which is particularly noteworthy as the Bizeljsko wine-growing region is quickly “lumped” with Dolenjska. The area was officially named Lower Styria, or Untersteiermark in German, already in the Habsburg Monarchy.<\/p>\n
The farm covers 24 hectares, of which 5 hectares are vineyards and the rest is forest and pasture, as they always have a few cows and calves at the house to provide manure and, of course, meat for the family’s needs. The Kelhar family has always made wine – they have never been in the business of selling grapes. Until 1989, when Marijan bottled his first bottles of sauvignon, the wine was sold in bulk. From the first bottling onwards, Marjan starts to appear at wine tastings, festivals and competitions. The Keltis brand is born. After years of combining small rooms in different locations, a new, modern cellar was built in 2007.<\/p>\n
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The family cultivates 5 hectares of vineyards on the nearby hillsides, with a predominantly south and south-west exposition, with the exception of the north-facing pinot gris. The vines grow on plots with very different soil textures. It is dominated by marl, sandstone with a quartz binder, limestone and clay. Such diverse plots bring both, beautiful acidity and complexity to wines. They have around 4,500 vines planted per hectare. Training method is single guyot. The oldest vineyard is a chardonnay vineyard planted 29 years ago, while the average age of vineyards is 17 years.<\/p>\n
Keltis wines are made from ten varieties. Some are cuv\u00e9es, but more and more are single varietals. Chardonnay and Pinot Gris are the most abundant, followed in roughly equal proportions by Traminer, Yellow Muscat, Muscat Ottonel, Riesling, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. Of the whites, they cultivate the indigenous Rumeni Plavec, which is used for sparkling wines because it gives them beautiful freshness and special character. It is an old variety that is vigorous and, even in hot vintages, produces high acidity, which is ideal for sparkling wine production.<\/p>\n
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Many tastings of wines from other winemakers in Slovenia and abroad led Miha to the conclusion that organic wines are infinitely better than conventional ones. So in 2009 they introduced organic production in the pinot gris vineyard, a small plot of chardonnay and riesling and made their first cuv\u00e9e. Within a few years, organic work was introduced in all vineyards. Today, they are all grassed over, and the land is only “opened up” every few years.<\/p>\n
“Organic farming embraces you and doesn’t let you go. It is a primal relationship with the land and farming”, say Miha and Marijan. Harvesting takes place at optimum ripeness, with the grapes for sparkling wines being harvested slightly earlier. Strict selection, which is one of the most important prerequisites\u00a0 for producing perfect wines, takes place in the vineyards. Before the introduction of the organic work, wines were fermented with the help of selected yeasts, but now the alcoholic fermentation of all the wines takes place spontaneously – using a starter – pied de cuve – made from about 30 kilograms of grapes harvested roughly ten days before the main harvest.<\/p>\n
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Macerations can be cold, lasting from 12 to 24 hours – e.g. in the case of dry Traminer and sweet Muscat, or they take place at uncontrolled temperatures and last from a few days to three weeks. For the cuv\u00e9e extreme, Miha tried different approaches and left the wine in contact with the skins for two to eight months. At the moment, he considers that four to five months of maceration is the optimum length for this exceptional wine. Simpler wines are vinified and destemmed in stainless steel tanks, while more complex wines are vinified in used barriques and large wooden barrels.<\/p>\n
A modest amount of sulphur is added to the wines before bottling, and some even go into the bottle without any. Wines rest and mature in bottles and are only sold when Marijan and Miha are sure they are ready for the market. The second fermentation of sparkling wines is done with must, i.e. without the addition of sugar. Sparkling wines are usually partially disgorged. Sweet wines are made from Yellow and Muscat Ottonel, with the botrytis playing its role in many vintages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The sparkling wine is extremely fresh and juicy. The bubbles are small and velvety. The scent conjures up yellow apple, pear, a few meadow flowers. A perfect dry sparkling wine (brut nature), the palate repeats the aforementioned fruit, a slightly salty minerality and shy notes of ageing on lees (brioche pastry).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_cat":[514,500,550,499,578,546,548,503,502,505],"product_tag":[556,521,552,572,554,571],"class_list":["post-3066","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","product_cat-chardonnay-en","product_cat-country","product_cat-keltis","product_cat-natural-wines","product_cat-rumeni-plavec","product_cat-slovenia","product_cat-sparkling","product_cat-white","product_cat-wine-colour","product_cat-winegrower","product_tag-bizeljsko-en","product_tag-chardonnay-en","product_tag-kelhar-en","product_tag-penina-en","product_tag-styria","product_tag-yellow-swimmer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n