Suklje-hisa-ikona-2

ŠUKLJE WINERY

More than 100 years of tradition.

The first evidence of wine production in our family goes back to 1895, when Matija Šuklje was granted a loan of 140 gold dinars to plant grafted vines after the phylloxera devastation. From that period onwards tradition of winemaking on our farm has gone from generation to generation increasing the lands under vineyards. Nowadays our 6,5 ha estate is led by the sixth and seventh generation of Šuklje with Jože the father, his children Matija and Katja, and his French son in law Guillaume. While Jože brought the traditional winemaking activity into modern era in 90’s, the youngest generation brings nowadays their international experience into our family wine story.

Jože grew up on the farm, finished agricultural school, worked as an agricultural consultant at local cooperative and since 1993 farming became his full-time occupation. He took over the estate from his father Jože in 1995 and ran both vineyards and the cellar. Jože doubled the production and remained focused on local variety Bläufrankish. He believes in environmentally friendly viticulture, the quality of grapes that has to be achieved in the vineyard through the right combination of site, climate and variety and transparent winemaking to reveal the potential of grapes and terroirs.

This family story would not be sustainable without the support of mum Tatjana. While she is not directly involved in wine production, she is always there to help when it’s needed. Her contribution to our story is priceless and she is particularly involved in our hospitality activities.

Originating from Bordeaux, he got caught by the passion of wine when he was doing his PhD in oenology at Bordeaux University. He went thereafter to Stellenbosch University where he met Katja and moved with her to Australia. He is working now as professor in Oenology at the University of Nova Gorica. He is in charge together with Katja for the technical decisions regarding winemaking in the cellar. He strongly believes in the terroir potential of Bela Krajina and Blaufränkisch variety. That definitely convinced him to stay in Slovenia, besides his wife of course.

Katja studied agriculture. She finished her Phd in viticulture and spent three vintages at Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and later continued her research in Australia with the Australian wine industry. She returned to Slovenia in 2016 with the aim to participate in the family farm development. She is supervising and helping for the vineyard management and leading winemaking decisions together with her husband. She shares fathers’ vision and believes that wine quality is achieved in the vineyard, therefore winemaking serves only to express given grape potential.

Matija grew up on the farm and studied construction engineering. After few years of work as an engineer he returned to farm in 2017 to help his father Jože. Through his passion for wine and travels he gained extensive knowledge about local and foreign wine markets. Besides the daily occupations at the farm, Matija is also responsible for wine sales, marketing and communication. He is strongly involved in several wine boards and firmly believes in the potential of the region to produce exceptional wines.

Wife of Matija, also originating from Bela Krajina, has recently obtained her master degree in forestry. On the farm, she is responsible for our social medias and communication. Together with Tatjana she is leading hospitality activities and contribute significantly to the life of our family wine estate.