Delicacies among the Dolenjska vineyards and forests

Dolenjska in the southeast of Slovenia invites you to discover its natural beauty and cultural heritage among the wine-growing hills and colourful orchards. There are plenty of opportunities to actively spend your free time in nature and to pamper your taste buds. The latter will especially enjoy the Delicacies of Dolenjska (Dobrote Dolenjske), where the tastiest flavours are combined, in a region which earned the title of EDEN finalist in the category “Tourism, Local Cuisine and Gastronomy”.

When you arrive in Dolenjska, the view over the vine-bearing hills, covered with lovely little villages, orchards and meadows, will immediately impress you. This is the home of Delicacies of Dolenjska, the rich variety of local dishes and food. Sweeten your day with flower, forest or pine forest honey and lick a spoon of homemade jam. In winter, a cup of homemade herbal tea and baked delights prepared according to grannies’ recipes is particularly appealing. The offer is complemented with fruit that grows in the local orchards and provides the right dosage of vitamins and wine produced in the surrounding vineyards.

Among them is cviček, the king of the Dolenjska wine cellars. Besides Tuscany’s Chianti, this is the only wine in the world composed of red and white grape varieties. Protected with the recognised traditional denomination, its composition is 70 per cent žametna črnina and modra frankinja, and 30 per cent kraljevina and laški rizling. Each wine cellar produces a different type of cviček, but always from the same 4 wine varieties. Dolenjska is known for its vineyard cottages which were once used for storing tools and grapes in the vineyards, while today they are renovated cottages in which you can stay overnight. In addition to the entrance door keys, you will also be entrusted with the cottage’s wine-cellar key by its master.

In the land of cviček

You will be accompanied by vineyards and vineyard cottages while walking and exploring the tourist wine roads of the wine-growing region of Dolenjska which presents the largest wine-growing area in Slovenia. Here, it is particularly lively in the autumn when the preparations for the St. Martin`s Day celebrations and harvests take place in the vineyards. St. Martin`s Day is a holiday celebrated in Slovenia on 11 November and dedicated to the new wine or the day when must turns into wine. 

You can enjoy the rafting experience throughout the year. Thus, Novo mesto and the Krka river, which has been a special symbol of Dolenjska for a long time, with its intertwined natural and cultural heritage, are presented from the water’s surface. On the river, mills and saws used to stand, wooden bridges are still preserved, while numerous castles with their legends are located along it.

In Dolenjska, you should stop in Šentrupert. The Land of Hayracks is the first open-air museum with hayracks that are a distinctive part of the Slovenian ethnological heritage. In olden times, farmers used them to dry and store crops, while today they are intended mainly for storing agricultural machinery and for social events. In the museum, 19 hayracks are kept, among them “Luka’s toplar” from 1795, which is considered the oldest preserved double hayrack (toplar) in the world.

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