The Italian army wanted to supply water to its defence line on the border over Sinji vrh from the Hubelj spring in the Vipava Valley. Instructed by the Italian engineers, the paths and tunnels were excavated by the locals by hand, and the water was pumped from the Hubelj to Sinji vrh with the help of reservoirs built into the hill.

The project was never completed, as the Second World War broke out and the tunnels and giant water reservoirs at 1,000 metres above sea level were eventually abandoned and forgotten. Every now and then a farmer would use them for storing crops, but they were otherwise forsaken.

“There’re 2,500 such buildings around Slovenia. But people don’t know about them for the most part,” says Kristijan Vidmar, lighting our way with a lantern as we descend deeper and deeper. It’s gradually becoming more moist and the tunnels ever more ominous. The brownish orangey colour of the rusted pylons is the only thing that breaks the oppressive greyness. At some point, the flashlight reveals the silhouettes of wheels of cheese.

They look like frozen wooden wheels, gnarled, covered with patina and patches of mould, stacked one by one on an old wooden beam. On the other end of the tunnel, next to a giant underground water reservoir, completely fresh, snow-white wheels are ripening on a rack. It’ll take several months before they look like the ones already mentioned and obtain the specific strong flavour of the Golden Ring cheeses, which are made by the Ajdovščina colleagues, Kristijan Vidmar, and the academic painter, David Ličen.

The latter runs Lična hiša, a cultural and art association in Ajdovščina, while Vidmar was truly born into the cheese-making profession, as his family owns an organic farm at Angelska gora and runs a successful Sinji Vrh Pension where the central role is played by the Golden Ring cheeses. The house was originally built in the 1930s to accommodate the water supply guards, but was empty until 1989, when Kristijan’s father fell in love with the abandoned building boasting a fantastic view that reaches from the Adriatic Sea to the Alps and the entire Vipava Valley, and decided to convert it into a tourist farm. Two years later, Sinji Vrh Pension was opened and is now considered an obligatory stop for foodies in this part of Slovenia.

Kristijan and David began making cheeses as complete amateurs, with no ambitions and entrepreneurial aspirations, but simply passion and enthusiasm for “somewhat special types of cheeses,” they say. But the ‘golden rings’ proved to be a hit and they have managed this project utterly seriously for the last three years after initially impressing their friends with it. “No such cheeses existed in Slovenia before. We paid particular attention to ripening and were moving them from place to place while trying to find the optimal ripening facility,” Kristijan explains.

The tunnels turned out to be that optimal location. “We discovered that the conditions in the tunnels are absolutely perfect for the ripening of our cheeses, as the humidity in them is between 85 and 90 per cent,” he says. Three types of cheeses (Vipava Valley, Soft Valley and Blue Valley), from a total of six that are on offer at all times, are currently in the tunnels. According to the season or inspiration, these are occasionally supplemented by another extra type (they can even develop a custom-made cheese in agreement with a client). Cheeses that are not ripened underground reach maturity in a 200-year old cellar that was once used for storing the cabbage and turnip that are indispensable ingredients of Vipava cuisine.

All cheeses are made from raw whole cow’s milk supplied from a farmer on the neighbouring hill. Some wheels are also wrapped in leaves or herbs growing at Sinji vrh (thyme, summer savory, peppermint, etc.) and then wrapped in raw cotton dipped in lard, following the procedure used in Somerset, England to make the famous Cheddar. This method enables a balanced exchange of air humidity and steady ripening. Over time, unique textures of natural moulds begin developing on the surface of the cheese, with grey, blue and orangey hues.

The cheeses ripen for three months or more and adjust to the conditions in the tunnels. Their particularity is that whey is removed from the curd grains during the drying, to which cold water is added to reduce acidity. The grains then coagulate and preserve more moisture. As a result, the cheeses remain moist. Despite longer ripening, the core is softer, more spreadable, and the flavour sweeter.

Because they ripen in such specific conditions in a unique microclimate, at high humidity and constant temperature, their flavour is more pronounced, full, distinct, and slightly spicy with a long after-taste.

One of the first to get ‘hooked’ on the Golden Ring cheeses and begin promoting them intensively was Matej Lavrenčič, who owns a wine bar and bistro called Faladur in Vipava and has been friends with Kristijan since they were students. When we visit him, he first serves us a milky pouch neatly bound with a straw in the garden of a renovated old stone house in the centre of Vipava. “Burjata,” he says proudly.

The first burrata in the Vipava Valley, as interpreted by the boys from the Golden Ring, filled with albumin cottage cheese and cream, a delicious silky and creamy mixture that runs out of the pouch when you untie it. At Faladur, it’s served in such a way that it doesn’t lose its softness and the cheese is really accentuated – merely requiring a high-quality local olive oil and ground red pepper to top it off.

This principle – less is more – is observed in all dishes served at Faladur, and their philosophy has not changed at the new location. “The concept? The concept is the Vipava Valley,” states Matej as if it’s self-evident, while filling the welcoming aperitif glasses with excellent Štokelj sparkling wine made from the native Pinela variety.

Matej grew up with and around wines. The young Ajdovščina man studied viticulture and winemaking. His mother had a laboratory and a store with oenological compounds, in which he helped and made analyses as a student.

He passed the WSET course (one of the most renowned expert training courses for wine tasting) with flying colours and obtained the Level 3. In 2013, he opened the first Faladur in Ajdovščina. At that time, it was as a wine shop and distributor, but it slowly grew and expanded its offer. It went from serving cold cuts to hot traditional dishes, such as jota and larded polenta, and eventually grew into what it is today: one of the best Vipava bistros. Matej, who runs the bistro with his wife Neža, never wanted to offer high cuisine in Faladur, but make it into an honest promoter of the valley.

“Faladur is an old dialect word for an antechamber to the cellar where people socialised and drank. And I wanted Faladur to serve as a door, the gateway to the Vipava Valley,” he explains when bringing to the table plates with blood-red sirloin and mustard seeds, orange trout carpaccio with olive oil and onion sprouts and golden baked frtalja with plentiful of seasonal herbs.

Also here is a selection of best cheeses (Golden Ring!), charcuterie from the valley, homemade pickled vegetables, grilled asparagus and beef tartar with almost no seasoning in this latest version to really bring out the quality of the meat.

All suppliers are exclusively from the Vipava Valley and the menu changes in accordance with the season, but some of the Faladur’s must-have classics remain. Faladur wouldn’t be Faladur without its jota consisting of turnip fermented in pomace, polenta cooked in whey and laden with cracklings and roast prosciutto, and the fantastic walnut štruklji dumplings with honey and cinnamon.

The menu always includes one pasta and one gnocchi dish, sometimes with wild garlic, rooster or cotechino. For the main course, we were able to choose from the neck of the Krškopolje pig or sirloin. The latter came to the table perfectly roasted and juicy on the inside, merely with an addition of roast asparagus. “If a piece of meat is good, it doesn’t need anything else,” says Matej, as he places on the table a mini selection of the Vipava strong macerates – Mlečnik, UOU, Štemberger, Burja, Batič.

After lunch, Matej and Kristijan take us to Sinji vrh. Matej has to pick some seasonal wild garlic and Kristijan needs to stock up on the wine. Their cooperation blossomed years ago when Matej started working with wines and Kristijan decided to offer specific wines on an exquisite wine list instead of wine in bulk, which was on offer when the pension was still run by his father. The wine list remains, and the exchange of goods has intensified with the packages of cheese from the hill into the valley.

While Matej opens the bottles at the table with a view, Kristijan starts cutting cheeses that are as yellow as the sun setting on the horizon, and his mother serves cottage cheese štruklji with wild garlic and a sauce made from Krapež Malvazija wine and a fondue of Golden Ring cheeses. There’s no hurry to return to the valley when the table is laden with such delicacies.