Tilia Estate
Potoče, Slovenia (Vipava Valley)
Tilia began with a roofless house. In his final year of enology studies — after apprenticeships in Switzerland and a harvest at Raymond in California — Matjaž Lemut bought a derelict property with three hectares of bare land in his home Vipava Valley. The following April, he planted the first vineyard with Pinot Gris, mostly because it was the only grafted vine he could get their hands on. It turned out to be prophecy.
Three decades later, Tilia — Latin for the linden tree that grows on the estate, Slovenia's own symbol of independence — is known across Europe as the House of Pinots. Matjaž has become one of the loudest, most credible voices arguing that world-class Pinot Gris belongs in the Vipava Valley, backing the claim with an amazing depth and finesse in his own bottling. Matjaž is also the Valley's Maestro of Pinot Noir with his own boasting fresh, cherry-bright bottlings to single-vineyard Pinots from tiny, low-yielding parcels raised in French and Slavonian oak. Every August, the estate throws its own International Pinot Noir Day celebration, gathering the valley's growers to make the case together.
Around the Pinots come the Vipava essentials — Zelen, Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and structured reds — from about ten hectares of hand-picked vines. Everything reflects a higher skilled & trained enologist who never stopped acting like curious students: precise, restless, and convinced the best is still ahead.
IMPORTED SELECTIONS
EL Sparkling Rosé
Nostra
Pinot Gris