Žametovka

Maribor vine

The Maribor vine grows on the front of the Old Vine House in the Lent district beside the Drava River. Paintings kept at the Štajerska Provincial Museum in Graz show it was already there by 1657. A Paris lab tested the vine in 1972 and found it to be more than 400 years old. Over its life, it has endured the Ottoman-Habsburg wars, Napoleon’s occupation of the Illyrian Provinces, the continent-wide phylloxera blight, and both world wars.

Each year the vine yields enough grapes to make roughly 25 liters of wine, which is put into small 250ml bottles. The Maribor city council gives these bottles as ceremonial gifts to dignitaries.

Recipients have included former U.S. president Bill Clinton, Pope Benedict XVI, Emperor Akihito of Japan, and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Cuttings from the vine are also given away; King Abdullah II of Jordan received one, and former Slovenian President Milan Kučan grows another at his home in Ljubljana. The grapes are harvested and crushed each October during Maribor’s ten-day Bacchanalia festival.

Wine

Žametovka is a late-ripening grape variety, typically ready around mid-October, with moderate growth and a preference for quality vineyard sites. It withstands winter frost fairly well but is more vulnerable to spring frosts. The time from bud break to full grape maturity is roughly 170 days.

Its clusters are large and moderately compact, averaging 250 to 400 grams. The grapes often reach high sugar levels, resulting in rich wines with pronounced sweetness and residual sugar. The wine from the Maribor vine, which is not sold to the public, was called "virtually undrinkable" by The Daily Telegraph.