I love to check out new places close to Trieste where you can spend a nice weekend while relaxing and, why not, enjoying good food, and those who know me can attest that. This time, I am in Brda, the Slovenian Colllio, a fascinating place overlooked by gentle hills and vine rows; here, among wineries and excellent restaurants, there’s a marvellous 19th century small castle. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Gredič, a boutique hotel of rare beauty!
If you’re feeling stressed and are looking for a nice place where to get some peace, this place is right for you (and for me, too!). the hotel only offers seven rooms, one of which is a splendid suite…an apartment with a spacious living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and windows in the crawlspace that frame the outside landscape. It’s incredible.
Going downstairs, you can find 2 junior suites, each with a living room, a bedroom and a bathroom, all decorated with natural colours; linen curtains and sheets have a clean scent! On the first floor, we have a the classic standard rooms.
This boutique hotel has been completely renovated and opened three years ago; warm tones that will make you feel at home and the contrast between modern furniture and vintage architecture are the selling point of this wonderful castle!
From the hotel’s hall, you have access to a lounge where you can enjoy a glass of good wine, choosing the music you prefer. You may also choose to go on the outdoor terrace, where you can enjoy a magnificent view, on in the pool garden, sitting on really comfortable couches and sunbeds to appreciate nature from sunrise to sunset.
The restaurant is located on the floor below. It is the perfect place to have mouth-watering breakfasts, lunches and dinners. I had the pleasure to stop by and eat here; I picked the fish menu (four courses for 45 euros).
Here are the delicacies I tasted:
- Tuna tartar with grilled pineapple, wasabi and dehydrated oil;
- Linguine with prawns, tuna, calamari, shrimp, lobster spume and black olives cream
- Hake filet with beluga black caviar, a cream made of white reduction and chives, a sweet potato purée and a spinach tartlet;
- Peach mousse, meringue, custard and mango.
It might be irrelevant, but here goes: this marvellous meal has been accompanied by excellent Brda wines from Gredič’s spectacular underground winery. Eighty per cent of their wines come from the Slovenian Collio, whereas Italian wines and some champagne form the remaining twenty per cent.
I’d like to underline that the downstairs room can be loaned for dinners or tastings. Believe me when I say that it is really suggestive! Needless to say that this small castle is the perfect venue for weddings and special events…
All the paintings you’ll see on the walls are part of an exposition of the local painter Rudi Skočir, cllaed “Tribute to Love”; every six months, the hotel rents this space to a different artist to expose their work.
…as I was saying at the beginning of the article, people don’t come here only to rest! Once you get nearby, my advice is to take you car, your bike or to go for a nice, long walk and go to Medot’s for a wine tasting. It is a small winery that only has four hectares but produces its wine with much love and care.
It is a wonderful place that can be loaned for wedding, birthdays and so on. Here you’ll find a patio with a panoramic view on vineyards and hills! How could I not try it properly?
With a chalice in my hand, I tasted an Extra-Brut Cuvée 7 years on the lees from 2011, disgorgement of 2019; it is made of 50% Ribolla Gialla, 25% Chardonnay and 25% Pinot Noir. Among all the wines I tasted, this was absolutely my favourite. Only 4gr/l of sugar, with an aromatic but equilibrated taste and delicate acidity. Of course I have nothing to say about the other wines, the best among them being the Medot Brut 48, 48 months on the lees and made of 60% Ribolla Gialla, 20% Pinot Noir and 20% chardonnay. Medot Brut is a classic “young” sparkling wine made with the Classic Method; its bubbles are fine-grained and its effervescence is vibrant and gentle at the same time.
I don’t like playing the wine expert (I wouldn’t believe myself either), but I have to say that in all these years of tastings and samplings my palate has become lightly better refined than before! Let’s say I’m better trained.
At Medot’s, I appreciated all the wines; they’re all brewed with the Classic Method and the grapes are harvested manually; they all have a strong minerality (which I appreciate very much in a wine, as this quality always make want to take another sip). Maybe I didn’t know how to appreciate the Brut Millésimé 2010 at its best, made of 40% Ribolla Gialla, 40% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir. In my opinion it had too many scents in order for me to really understand it… but everybody has their own taste!
And then, another six sparkling wines brewed with the Classic Method but also a still wine, to go back to tradition, a Ribolla Gialla: Rebula Journey, inspired by Miro Simčič, 2018. This wine’s peculiarity is his composition: 50% of Ribolla cold macerate, 40% fermented in inox barrels and 10% aged in French barrique barrels.
Its flavour is round, rich and fresh; the wine has a good salinity and minerality. In the end, it leaves a persistent fruity taste.
To combine some food with these wines, Gredič’s Master Chef David Bucik prepared some finger food: octopus and cherry tomato, profiteroles with cheese and truffle and “edible ground” (four kinds of cheese, dehydrated porcinis, almonds and hummus).
See what you can get here? Wine, food and relax
I hope I haven’t bored you and I hope that I didn’t dwell too much, but I love to describe my experiences in detail so that you can choose to use the information I give you to its fullest. I have tried my best to convey my emotions…now it’s up to you. And always remember that…
“Everything you can imagine is real”.
Ph. Lara Perentin
