Vinag 1847 — Attraction in Maribor

We did the wine tasting tour at VINAG yesterday. It was good... a must for everyone visiting Maribor.

It started as we arrived without reservation around 17:20u. Barbara (the house guide) welcomed us and told us that we could join a group of two couples for the tour at 17:30u. We waited outside full of anticipation in the beautiful sunny weather outside and greeted the other couples as they arrived. Around 17:45u Barbara hurried to come and welcome us to the tour and our journey started. Barbara told us the history of VINAG and either new every detail or ensured us that she was still trying to find out all the details for she was the only guide and had started giving the vinag tour 1,5 month ago. She also seems to speak every language thinkable, of wine producing countries that is. During our tour happy participants of the previous tour were leaving and buying a lots of the wines they tasted. Barbara showed us the whole cellar and we were even allowed to climb into a huge wine barrel of 160000 liters. When a young entousiastic child entered the barrel and experimented with screaming inside the barrel to hear it echo it was time for us to climb out and start tasting wines. Barbara served 6 types of wine and the other couples had ordered cheese and meat plates that were huge so we shared them. Each wine was better and the one before and at the last tasting our guide finally relaxed and joined us for a last glass. We had planned to do a tour of around an hour but left the cellar around 21:30h. At recommendation of Barbara we hurried to La Pizzaria for dinner. All participants joined and we drank a bottle of Mariborchan on our way there. Fortunately the Pizzaria was delicious and open until 23h.

All together this tour was an amazing experience. Don't worry about reservations, just make sure to take your time and not make any dinner reservations shortly after the tour. You never know how long the tasting is gonna take. Thank you Barbara for this...

We have had the pleasure to attend the wine cellars tour and taste 5 samples of wine during our visit at Vinag 1847. The tour in the cellar was informative and interesting, our guide knew fun facts about the city, the history of Slovenia besides knowing everything about the winery itself. We have seen how the cellar evolved, and how wine making was shaped in the region. Our guide also spoke a bit of Hungarian which was a nice surprise(the tour was in English). The tours are running everyday, and it is truly an experience, we ended up 2 hours at the place with the tours and tasting included.

The tasting was also brilliant, we have been able to taste almost the full selection of the winery, and compare the classics series with the noble series. We mainly tasted great whites, as the region is more famous of white grape varieties, but we had the chance to taste some interesting rose and a truly unique orange wine(has nothing to do with the fruit) as well. We also tries the pinot noir which had a very distinct character. The wines have great price points, and even the top, noble selection worths it.

We also ordered the meat platter for two, which didn’t disappoint, with some local aged and cured ham, and some spicy - peppery cheese, we had a feast.

All in all I would recommend the place to anyone who is interested in the history of winemaking in the region or if they would like to get familiar with the styles of Slovenia. The staff is nice, and the most helpful, we had a...

This might not be as great as the things that you’ve read about it. So much potential to be something really great (and it seems like it was in the past), but it’s passed through so many owners and hasn’t been invested in recently that it’s a bit disappointing now. Relatively new owners now and glad they’re Slovenian, but the wine is mediocre and the price of the tour is outrageous, especially given the quality and variety of the wines and how run down the building is. The staff is young and friendly and we had no trouble understanding our guide like others have complained about. She had interesting facts and did a great job serving the wine. The ownership is really the ones that have failed to make this as special as it could be. I hope they start producing better wines and/or invest in the building to have a better tour of an amazing...