The setting is Earth (for now) in the oldest town in Slovenia, Ptuj, which is located in the northeast corner of Stajerska near the Hungarian border. This resilient country has been making wine for centuries, but much of Slovenian wine isn’t exported mostly due to its turbulent history. After a century of being ruled by others, Slovenian citizens voted to become an independent country and joined the European Union in 1991, and their wine culture has been expanding internationally ever since. Slovenians are fiercely proud of their heritage, as shown by Slovenian vignerons who insist on growing primarily inidigenous Slovenian grape varieties on their land.

Slovenian winemaker Peter Gönc is a self-taught winemaker who enjoys experimenting with different grape varietals and aging methods. His family has been making wine for four generations, and their surname Gönc translates to a specific type of Slovenain barrel. The Gönc family were destined for winemaking!

Peter is an ardent believer in the power of organic practices and music therapy. He and his crew regularly play tunes to their fermenting and aging grapes! After a long day of picking, they’ll crank up the music and rock out to Van Morrison, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and other rock ‘n’ roll favorites. 

The 2019 Gönc Harvest Moon is made from the well known grape, Pinot Grigio, made in a Ramato-orange wine style. These grapes are picked late at night underneath a bright full moon by Peter and his harvest team. The grape skins are left on the pressed juice for an extended period of time imparting a bright orange, peach-colored wine, quite like a glowing Harvest Moon. It has very poignant, full tannins and tastes a bit like biting into a dried apricot sprinkled with cardamom and nutmeg. 

Peter’s Grape Abduction series includes fantastic liters of easy-drinking, playful wines, with alien starships on the label, which is also a nod to the bizarre UFO sightings in Chateauneuf du Pape in the 1950s. The 2020 Gönc Grape Abduction Rosé is mostly from the red grape Žametna Črnina with a touch of the white grape Pinot Blanc. After fermentation and a brief aging in stainless steel, this wine is smooth with pretty notes of strawberries and peaches. The 2020 Gönc Grape Abduction Orange is a blend of Pinot Blanc, Pinot Grigio, and Riesling that sees up to 14 days of grape skin contact before aging in stainless steel for 5 months. It has mellow tannins and flavors of a juicy, mandarin orange. 

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