Cviček

Cviček is a Slovenian wine from the Lower Carniola region of Slovenia. It is a unique wine, composed of different grape varieties including both white and red grape species. It has a relatively low alcoholic content of 8.5% to 10%. Despite its long history of being known as a sour and poor wine, it has recently become a very popular drink with both local people and visitors to the region.

In the Middle Ages the Lower Carniola was a constituent part of the March of Carniola, and its wine was named Marvin (from German Marwein from Markwein), which was also mentioned by Valvasor, a seventeenth-century Slovenian historian. With the abolition of old viticultural system, people started to neglect vineyards, vine decay grew larger and larger and concomitantly, wine quality started to drop gradually. Becoming more and more sour, people referred to it as cviček (an old Slovenian word denoting very sour wine) and somehow the name stuck, allegedly also because of the synonymous German expression zwikt. After gaining independence the people living in Lower Carniola began to defend the quality of the wine, and today it has become a popular casual drink for locals and visitors alike.

Cviček is produced by a complex process where a mixture of different varieties of grapes are added together to create the final product. The main ingredient of the wine is Žametna Črnina which composes 45% of Cviček. It generally is an old wine type which requires a lot of sun. Despite this, it does not contain a high amount of sugar but does have enough acidic qualities to be the basic ingredient. Žametna is the oldest type of grape vine in Europe, being at least 400 years old, and it grows in the ancient part of Maribor.Modra Frankinja or Blue Franconian, as it is known, is another wine which makes up Cviček and this gives the wine its full flavour. Kraljevina, is then added which is a white wine and is used to change the acidity level so that the wine is more drinkable. Laški Rizling, or Italian Riesling, can occasionally be added. This is because there is no exact formula to Cviček and so every Cviček Winemaker has their own taste of Cviček which is unique to their vineyard. The alcohol level can also be altered but can not be any more than 10% volume. It can be an issue during especially hot seasons which creates more sugar in the grapes, because this means a higher alcohol volume during the wine making process. To counterbalance this, the amount of Žametovka is increased as this has a much lower alcohol content.

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