12 December 2025
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Then, if you add the fact that the management of the establishment is a family affair, the picture is complete. Today, the winery is run by Danilo Flakus (considered among the best Slovenian vintners), who produces the wine, while his son Aleš Flakus manages the restaurant which, since last summer, has been led by Serbian chef Miloš Stamenković.
But let’s go in order. Viticulture has been practiced in northern Slovenia since 1139, the year when the Benedictines took over this activity. In fact, between 1130 and 1135, the estate around Jarenina was donated to the Church, which assigned it to the Admont monastery. Through purchases and donations, the property expanded so much that the monks also acquired the vineyards of Železne dveri and Kapela.
At that time, the wine produced by the Benedictines was transported by cart to Austria for commercialization: after all, in the Middle Ages, wine was the main source of income, and the Benedictine monks of Admont Abbey were grateful for the Jarenina holdings and donations received over the centuries, so they decided to renovate the manor to make it one of the most evocative wine destinations in Slovenia. The tradition was interrupted before World War II and was resumed as Dveri Pax in 2002.
Inside the historic 1573 structure where the monks lived and produced wine, today you will find the tasting room and Dveri-Pax shop, as well as the restaurant located in the former cellar and dedicated to regional cuisine, which opened in 2019. The atmosphere is welcoming with brick vaults, arches, wooden elements such as oak tables, while the menus offer five, six, or seven courses.
A large vegetable garden supplies much of the fruit and vegetables needed by the restaurant throughout the year: the rest is purchased from local producers. And so here grow carrots, tomatoes, apples, lemongrass, asparagus, strawberries, cucumbers, and squash, whose seeds, in this area of Slovenia, are used to produce the prized oil, a true condiment of the local tradition.
To reach the garden, right next to the restaurant, you pass under an enormous linden tree (a symbol of Slovenian identity) which in summer is an ideal place to stop for an outdoor dinner sheltered from the summer heat. The restaurant’s entrance door overlooking the garden is instead surrounded by an old Isabella vine, a variety with a strawberry flavor ideal for meals, so much so that it is often used here for desserts.
Working in the kitchen with Miloš Stamenković are three other people for a culinary offering designed to best accompany the winery’s wines. Among the proposed dishes are: Celery, pumpkin and mushroom; the delicate Sturgeon with cauliflower and pear; Muscat pumpkin; Rabbit, tarragon, butter; Pork cheeks, tomato and fennel; Venison, parsnip, raspberry; Asimina, meringue, grapes. Among the local suppliers is also the Kodila butcher shop (some products are sold in the winery shop) from Murska Sobota, whose meats and cured meats are a point of pride for all of Slovenia.
And staying on the enological theme, on 73 hectares of vineyards, divided between the best lands of Jeruzalem, Kapela and Radgona, and Maribor, Dveri-Pax produces different types of wine: sparkling wines, including the Dp Brut Furmint; dessert wines and the Benedict and Admund lines (the latter characterized by single vineyard wines) including Pinot Noir, Sauvignon, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and also Šipon Furmint and Blaufränkisch.
Furmint is one of the oldest grape varieties in this region and is estimated to have arrived here hundreds of years ago. A curiosity: the local name – Šipon (“sheep”) was given when French soldiers, while occupying these places, tasted it and commented: “Mhmm, c’est si bon”.
After a vineyard replanting effort that occurred in the early 2000s, Dveri-Pax today produces 350,000 bottles a year that are sold in Slovenia, Austria, and the rest of Europe as well as in the USA and China: red wines (20%) and elegant white wines (80%), balanced, expressive of the territory and, for this reason, awarded numerous accolades.
Hero image: Restaurant and wine cellar Dveri Pax
