Destinacija - Adria Airways

Among the vineyardsAmong the Vineyardsand Root Cellars ofBizeljskoTEXT: mARJAN ŽIBERNA Photography: BOŠTJAN PUCELJThis little story could have started many years ago; I amthinking of the time that I spent at the student halls ofresidence, where I had a roommate who was completelydifferent than me. He was a dedicated student, who wasenthusiastic about his studies, while I had absolutely nointerest in mine. He was the tall, athletic type, and he usedto put pictures of fit young men and women up on hiswardrobe doors, while I had a strong preference for theflyweight category. My roommate liked Modern Talking,Duran Duran and similar bands, while I listened to PinkFloyd, The Rolling Stones, Partibrejkers... We both had afarming background that might have served as commonground between us if only I (unlike him) had had theslightest interest in agriculture. But despite our manydifferences, we got along great.When I came home, he would turn down the music that he was listening to,and I would do the same whenever he came into the room. When he wentto bed in the evening, I would turn out the light if I was home; when he wasgetting ready for lectures in the morning, he would tiptoe around the roomand open the door quietly so as not to wake me up. And he used to love talkingabout his family vineyards – he was so enthusiastic about them that to mysurprise I found myself captivated by the subject; I always listened to him withgenuine interest and asked questions to find out more about the process ofmaking wine. Obviously, during these conversations we also enjoyed a bottleof wine that he brought with him from home. Listening to him talk addedsomething special to the taste of the wine. People who know quality winewhen they taste it never missed an opportunity to stress that the wines producedby my roommate's family were simply superb; my preference at the timewas for drinking large quantities of beer, but thanks to our discussions and hisexplanations, I always enjoyed the wines that he brought with him. My roommateused to talk about wine-growing and about Bizeljsko, his native region,with such enthusiasm that I would often say to myself, “one day I really haveto stop by his wine cellar and try a drop of the stuff he keeps in the big barrelsthere; I just have to visit these vineyards of his and the famed Bizeljsko...”But we all know how these things go – we have the best intentions of doingsomething, but then we never come around to actually doing it. In my case,I came very close to never acting on my intentions. Years later, long afterwe had both finished our studies and gone our separate ways, I happenedto enjoy an excellent glass of wine; looking at the label on the bottle, I wassurprised to discover that it came from my former roommate's cellar. Again Idecided to pay him a visit, and again I gradually forgot about my intention.77