Brda – land of a thousand terraces

Brda landscape with terraces

Caroline Gilby MW points out that western Slovenia is ahead of the sustainability game – so far.

You can’t help but notice terraces everywhere you turn in the stunning green landscape of Slovenia’s Brda region. Terraces have defined agriculture and viticulture here since Roman times – an essential adaptation to the steep hills and lack of flat land for growing crops.

It’s a cross-border region, extending into Italy’s Collio, and indeed both names (Brda and Collio) mean ‘hills’. I visited Brda recently for the fifth Brda Home of Rebula conference, and this year the focus was on this region’s natural...