Zmago Petrič

The Place Zmago Petrič founded Guerila, a biodynamic wine-growing farm in Planina, Slovenia, in 2005, and owns Guerila wines in Planina near Ajdovščina. The farm is tied to the Vipava Valley, where his work centers on biodynamic wines from old local varieties. Petrič’s connection to farming predates the estate. His memory of that landscape is practical rather than decorative: "Childhood memories take me back to the time when I was working on a small farm, to the vineyard, and into the cellar. To a time of humility, sincerity, responsibility, respect and love for the earth, nature and neighbour." That farm memory still gives shape to the wine work in Planina. He links the project to ideas, dreams, aspirations and stubbornness. Those words fit a grower who selected vineyard sites himself and planted them with local varieties rather than treating the vineyard as a neutral source of fruit.

The Method The vineyards earned organic certification in 2008. Biodynamic cultivation became part of the farm’s stated practice in 2011, and the estate received biodynamic certification in 2014. The method runs through both vineyard and cellar. The farm follows biodynamic principles in the vineyard and cellar, harvesting by the rhythms of nature, fermenting spontaneously, and bottling without filtration. The wines are made with wild spontaneous yeast fermentation and are biodynamic and organic certified. Petrič’s winemaking is best understood as biodynamic farming joined to thoughtful natural winemaking: the grape, the site and the cellar process are treated as one continuous piece of work.

The Range The signature range is built on old local varieties: Pinela, Zelen, Rebula and Malvasia. These are not treated as background grapes but as the core material of the farm’s identity in the Vipava Valley. Each wine belongs to the same method: biodynamic cultivation, spontaneous fermentation, and bottling without filtration. The result is a range defined less by intervention than by the decisions made before the fruit ever reaches the cellar — where to plant, what to plant, and how closely to let the work follow nature’s timing.