Gold for the Styrian monks' winery at the world's most important wine award
DVERI PAX wins gold at the World Wine Awards 2019
Monday, 27 May 2019
The world's most important wine award gives gold to Dveri-Pax, the winery of the Admont Benedictine monks.
The indigenous grape variety Furmint is honoured twice. Huge success for Dveri-Pax, the winery of the Styrian Benedictine monastery Admont: at the recently published "World Wine Awards 2019" of the renowned English trade magazine "Decanter", the winery located in Slovenian Styria won the coveted gold medal for its Furmint sparkling wine vintage 2015.
After last year's triumph with a total of 13 medals, the current gold rating represents the next milestone in the more than 800-year winemaking tradition of the Benedictine monks of Upper Styria. A total of nine medals were awarded this year - including two silver awards in addition to gold. Dveri-Pax has thus once again cemented its place in the absolute top league of European wineries.
280 of the world's most respected wine experts tasted and evaluated more than 15,000 wines from 50 countries at the award in London. "The award for Dveri-Pax and therefore also for Admont Abbey is a confirmation of our daily high-quality work in the vineyard and in the cellar. We are of course particularly proud of the gold medal - also because it was awarded for Furmint and therefore for a very special grape variety," says a delighted Franz Pichler, Economic Director of Admont Benedictine Abbey. The indigenous grape variety Furmint - or Šipon as it is known in Slovenia - represents the region like no other. In addition to gold for the Furmint sparkling wine, the Furmint Klassik (2018) also won silver in the current ranking. "Furmint is a grape variety that produces very high yields if you want it to. However, we greatly reduce the yield so that the grapes gain in quality," says Danilo Flakus, director and oenologist at the Dveri-Pax winery.
The Furmint single-vineyard wines are matured in large Slavonian oak barrels, the classic wines in steel tanks. In special vintages, Furmint is also pressed as straw wine. Flakus: "Furmint is one of the flagships of Slovenian viticulture. A wine that represents our country in all its beauty." The "Dveri-Pax" vineyards cover a total of almost 75 hectares, with twelve other grape varieties planted alongside Furmint. The winery and cellar are located in Jarenina, Slovenia, just a few kilometres from the Styrian border with Spielfeld. Around 300,000 litres of wine are pressed here every year. And this is of the highest quality, as cellar master Flakus emphasises: "We pick the grapes almost exclusively by hand. In winemaking, we combine our expertise and experience from centuries of tradition with state-of-the-art technology. The result of the maturing process is wonderfully harmonious wines that are characterised by freshness, smooth, fruity flavours and the highest quality of each individual variety. However, the most important characteristic of all our wines is their exceptional drinkability."
The monks of the Admont Benedictine monastery have owned the vineyards since the 12th century. The vineyards were cultivated by winegrowers from the region who, among other things, produced the mass wine. After the monastery was expropriated of its property during the National Socialist era, the Admonters got their land back in the 1990s. They have been harvesting the wine themselves again since 2001. And with great success, as shown not only by the current awards at the "Word Wine Awards". In addition to Austria and Slovenia, the main sales markets are Germany, Poland, Great Britain, the USA, Australia and China. The main varieties are Sauvignon, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Welschriesling and Furmint.
Incidentally, a "Dveri-Pax" wine from this indigenous grape variety has already received the highest of all awards at Decanter - the "International Trophy" - namely the "Furmint/Šipon Straw Wine 2009".