Najger Turnip Cave
Aljoška Najger Runtas

If you want to feel like a modern-day Indiana Jones, you have to explore Slovenia’s ‘turnip’ caves.

The Turnip Caves, otherwise known as Repnice, are huge underground cellars that were dug up from hard quartz sandstone. The purpose for this repnice was like a historical refrigerator - storing precious turnips through the winter.

The Slovenian term for turnip is “repea”, where “repnica” comes from. Since turnips were popular produce for feeding livestock, this storing method was important for the local villagers back over two centennials ago. Nowadays, a lot of wine producers from the region have repurposed these turnip caves as their own wine tasting rooms.

This particular turnip cave, the Najger Repnica cave, is located on the top of Brezovica, a village near the Croatian border. You can do a wine tasting here with 6 different wines paired with homemade cheese, bread and charcuterie.