Castello di Rubbia

Cantina e Vini

The Castle of Rubbia was founded at the end of the 90s as wine tourism project. The business began once again the old tradition of wine making which had been started in the 16th century by the Counts of Egg. The estate lies in San Michele del Carso in the province of Gorizia. It has a vineyard with 13 hectares and the historic castle which is being restored. It is surrounded by 170 hectares of woodland and 16 kilometres of trenches and underground embrasures from the First World War. The Castle of Rubbia has decided to make the most of the native vines of the Carso, such as Terrano, Vitovska and Malvasia which best represent the distinctiveness and characteristics of the area. The characteristic red soil, the product of a geological phenomenon called Carso, is rich in iron and lime. Here drought alternates with the local wind, the Bora, and the vines give us grapes from which we make dry, full-bodied wines, which have complemented the local gastronomy for centuries.

Halfway up the hill, between 90 and 150 metres above sea level, there is a stretch of fertile earth, a result of geology and the Carso phenomena, which for many decades was not put to any real use. This is where our first vineyard called Ušje is; it has 13 hectares of vines. They are mainly native: Vitovska, Terrano and Malvasia but there is also a small cultivation of Cabernet-Sauvignon. The climate is Mediterranean. The vineyard is surrounded by woods which, to the East, leave a narrow opening for the wind from the nearby Vipavska dolina valley and from the Nanos headland in Slovenia. The terrain, which is typical of the Carso, deep red and rich in iron, was formed during the Pleistocene era.