More than 400 years old, this grape vine is reported to be the world’s oldest.
The World's Oldest Grape Vine at the Old Vine House in Maribor, Slovenia
Up close, this grape vine looks mature, but normal.
But this isn’t just any grape vine. It’s more than 400 years old and the oldest known producing vine in the world (according to the sign beside the vine and Guinness’s Book of World Records).
It’s in Maribor, Slovenia’s second largest city located about 7 miles from the Austrian border.
The Old Vine grows on the Old Vine House in Lent, the oldest part of Maribor, along the River Drava.
About the wine
The old vine produces Modra Kavčina or Žametna Črnina grapes, one Slovenia’s oldest domesticated noble wine varieties. The vine annually produces between 75 and 130 pounds of grapes, whichare hand-pressed and bottled into bottles designed by Oskar Kogoj. The vine produces up to 100 bottles of wine each year, used as protocol gifts from the mayor of Maribor.
Lent Festival 2010 is underway now through July 10, 2010. During this festival, the Old Vine House offers tastings of the areas wines.
Getting to Maribor
We visited the Maribor and the Old Vine on a day trip via from Ljubljana during the Lent Festival in 2007. Read about our visit here.
- You can travel by train to Maribor from Vienna or Graz (the Emona), from Venice (the Euro City Casanova), or multiple routes from Zagreb or Budapest.
- Maribor is a 40 mile drive from Graz, 160 miles from Vienna or 230 miles from Venice.
Wine tasting opportunites abound on the Maribor wine-tourist road — beginning at the Old Vine. The area is known for white wines, with Laški Riesling the leading variety. Other grape varies in the area include Rhine Riesling, Chardonnay, Rulandec, Green Silvaner and Muscatel.
grapes on the oldest vine in Maribor, Slovenia
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