Slovenian wine producers have released a wine in honour of the new US First Lady Melania Trump.
First Lady Wine is made from the Blaufränkisch grape variety and is sold at Sevnica Castle in Slovenia for NZ $43.00 – twice as expensive as the shop’s other premium Blaufränkisch wines (usually sold under the grape’s local name, Modra Frankinja).
The wine is made by four local winemakers in the hope it will help them promote the area’s work with the Blaufränkisch grape.
All four of the winemakers involved, Mastnak, Kozinc, Kobal and Kerin, contributed the equivalent of two barriques from the 2015 vintage. One had been matured in new oak, two in two-year-old barriques and the rest in a 1,000-litre barrel.
First Lady Wine is not endorsed by Melania Trump – it is simply from the small industrial town – then part of Yugoslavia – that she lived in before becoming a model.
“Some people suggested we should sell it for €500, but I think it’s a fair price,” Rok Petančič, castle steward, told Decanter.com. “The sales are going well, though we haven’t started promoting it yet.”
