The winery
Vina Čotar (Branko & Vasja Čotar)
Cantina del Carso (Gorjansko, Slovenia), run by Branko and his son Vasja, known for terroir-expressive wines, fingerprint-signed labels and natural winemaking practices.
- Carso (Kras) / Slovenian Littoral (Primorska) · Slovenia
- 9 products
The story
The Čotar family's winemaking activity has local roots: Branko began making wine for his own osmiza and, starting from small vineyards in Gorjansko, progressively built a cellar carved into the Carso. In the following years his son Vasja joined the project, and the family business consolidated as a local reference for authentic Carso wines; the transition from informal sales to structured bottling is documented in online sources around the late 1980s/early 1990s.
Production philosophy
Winemaking focused on minimal intervention: spontaneous fermentations in barrels of varying sizes, extended macerations depending on the vintage, prolonged aging in wood and no filtration; limited use of additives.
Terroir and vineyards
Carso, close to the Italian border; vineyards on soils influenced by terra rossa with the calcareous subsoil typical of the Karst.
Characteristics
- Grape varieties
- Vitovska
- Malvazija (Malvasia Istriana)
- Sauvignon Blanc
- Teran
- Merlot
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- Chardonnay
- Hectares
- 7.5
- Bottles per year
- 30000
What makes it distinctive
- Labels with a fingerprint as a distinguishing feature
- Natural practices: spontaneous fermentation and extended macerations
- Typical wines of the Carso: Vitovska, Malvazija and Teran among the main ones.
- Cellar carved into the Carso with extended ageing in wood.
- Also distributed in international markets
