Wind, caverns, and the nearness of the Adriatic define the Kras District, the Slovenian–Italian border plateau of limestone, dolomite, and iron-rich terra rossa where the Štoka family (pronounced SHTOE-ka) has farmed Teran and Vitovska in one of Europe’s most severe and least arable wine regions for more than two centuries. Scoured by the burja wind and stripped of forest by Venetian shipbuilders, the land was stitched back together by stone walls and hand-carried soil. The family’s 25 hectares of certified organic vines sit at 250–270 meters on the red karst soils that gives Teran, both the name of the grape and the geographical area where the grape is grown, (known as Refosco in Italy) its hallmark acidity and unusually high iron content, a trait that gave the wine a medicinal reputation going back to Roman times and its protected-origin status within Slovenia. Primož Štoka bottled his first wine in 1989 on the eve of Slovenia’s independence, and today he and his son Tadej work these parcels—dry-farmed, fertilized only with animal manure, trained to Guyot, and planted at 5000 vines per hectare—with the same mixed agricultural rhythm that produces the estate’s prized pršut (prosciutto), the natural companion to their wines. Hand harvesting, gentle destemming, native-yeast fermentations in temperature-controlled stainless steel, gravity movement of wine, and aging in large used oak casks tame Teran’s intensity without muting its perfume. Izbrani is a sub-designation of Teran akin to an Italian “Classico,” and a classic Teran from Kras is scented with alpine berries and Mediterranean scrub, tense with natural acidity and the distinct “bloody” minerals of its red soils. Best served with salty cured meats or rare steaks and, ideally, given a brief decant.