Slovenian Styria, the hilly north-east, is one of Central Europe's great white-wine corners — the same cool marl slopes that run north into Austrian Styria. Here Furmint goes by the name Šipon, a legacy of the days when this was Habsburg wine country next door to Hungary's Tokaj.
Long known for crisp, aromatic dry whites, the region has become a hotbed of the modern skin-contact (« orange ») movement around Ormož and the Jeruzalem hills, where Furmint's ferocious acidity and firm skins make textured, dry amber wines a world away from Tokaj's sweetness.