Wander & Wonder Travel Newsletter

Hey StoryHunter

Fall is upon us, and if there’s one thing I really appreciate, it’s to sip some red wine under a blanket watching the sun go down.

And one place that’s perfect for this is Maribor in Slovenia.

It sits on the Drava River with a mountain on one side and vineyards on the other.

And growing on the wall of an old house down by the water is a plant that was planted around the time Shakespeare was born.

It’s still alive, and it still makes wine.

From 24-27 September, the city holds its World's Oldest Grapevine Festival - days of wine, food and music built around one small ceremony: the harvest of that single plant.

A whole town turns out to watch somebody pick grapes - and this is your chance to taste all the best Slovenia has to offer.

Read on to learn about:

🍇 The plant that has been alive for 450 years

🍷 The wine you cannot buy at any price

🍾 The two kilometres of tunnels under the square

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Destination of the Week

Maribor is Slovenia's second largest city - and only about 95,000 people live here.

In other words, it’s uncrowded and relaxed.

However, what makes it unusual is what surrounds it.

On one side stands Pohorje, a green mountain with a cable car running up from the edge of town.

On the other side are vineyard hills that begin where the houses stop.

Between them runs the river.

The oldest part of the city is Lent, a strip of low buildings right on the water.

For centuries this was a working river port, and timber was floated downstream from here on huge wooden rafts.

Today it is where the whole town sits outside with a glass in the evening.

Don't Miss

On the front wall of a house in Lent grows a vine.

It is not much to look at.

It is also 450 years old, and it holds the Guinness world record as the oldest vine on earth that still produces fruit.

It was planted in the 1550s or 1560s. Since then it has survived Ottoman armies, city fires, the disease that wiped out most of Europe’s vines in the 1800s, and a bombing raid in the Second World War.

It still gives 35 to 55 kilos of grapes every year.

The house behind it is now a museum - an entire museum about one plant.

Did You Know?

Those grapes make roughly 25 liters of wine a year.

That is about 100 small bottles.

And you cannot buy a single one of them.

The wine is never sold.

The city keeps it and hands it out as an official gift to important visitors - Queen Elizabeth II was one of those who got a bottle once.

Maribor also employs a guardian of the vine.

Part of the job is to count the bunches of grapes before each harvest.

And cuttings taken from the plant now grow in more than 170 places across four continents.

(which means that Maribor is a far more global town than most would think)

The Trendy Traveler Tip

Under the main square, 18 meters down, there is a second city made of wine.

The Vinag cellar was dug out in 1847 and now runs for more than two kilometers beneath the streets.

A tour walks you past 144 wooden barrels and into an archive holding some 85,000 bottles.

Ask to see the oldest one.

It is from 1946 - and there is nothing older, because everything from before that was drunk during the war.

It is cool, dark and completely quiet down there - the best hour you can spend in Maribor.