Adress: Nádražná 57 900 81 Šenkvice Slovenská republika
Country: Slovakia
internet: http://www.karpatskaperla.sk/
Wine district: Malokarpatská
wines
Beginnings (1983-1993 )
Everything started in 1983, when after our marriage we started to help Zárubas with wine production. Mother Margita Zárubová was a co-operative farmer so she had right to own a smaller parcel of vineyard and possibility of selling wine. Father Michal Záruba gave us a barrel of wine a so he gave us work, with which we helped them. Up until 1991 we helped our parents with selling, in cellar and even in vineyards. During this period we gained useful experience to be independent and in 1991 we established our own business. We produced wine in the cellar of our houses basement. This is where we started our own wine life with our first work of art – varietal wine Welsh Riesling.
First company (1994-1997)
We moved our production from our house to Pezinok in 1994. There we rented production hall from our late uncle Štefan Záruba, who regained his property in restitution. Our company worked in this hall for 4 years. In 1995 our Moravian Muscat won the best young wine award at Vinoforum wine competition in Pezinok. Since we had to bring adjusted wine to the reception, we had to have manufactured our label. Our first label was a graphic by Oliver Solga, with whom we collaborated from that moment. Afterwards we met Marián Komáč, who organized International symposium of graphic.
In addition to this event a bulletin has been launched of graphic art, from which we have chosen a graphic of Karol Félix for our label. He gave us his approval to use his graphic as label for our wines and from that moment on we used the graphics of Slovak artists for 10 years. In 1996 we rented a cellar in Vištuk and arranged a pressroom. One year later we bought a building from Nupod company in Šenkvice. We had reconstructed the building to be the seat of our company. Our production was focused on elementary wines – cask, mixed and sparkling wines. This was caused by the fact that we did not own high quality technology, which was not as wide spread and available as nowadays.
Company transformation (1998-2004)
The year 1998 was a break true year for us in many aspects. In this year we established Ltd. and in 1999 we renamed our company for KARPATSKÁ PERLA. We started to use new wine producing technologies, such as controlled fermentation, vinification and barique maturing. We had good luck that our uncle Ing. Peter Záruba has constantly educated us, because he had known where the development was aiming and he had been familiar with new technologies coming from abroad. Peter Záruba will always be a member of the Slovak viticultural elite thanks to his contribution to Slovak viticulture.
Working in Central controlling and examinational institute in Bratislava in the field of varietal examination, he executed national examinations for registration, acclaimed varietal characteristics and their adaptability to our climate. He was an expert in vine cultivating, clone variety selection and their regionalization. He built cellar room for microvinification technology of tested varieties in Bratislava. According to his advice we had our grapes certified to the Examinational institute. In that time period also the character of production was in change, our company’s ambition was to produce only high quality wines. In order to achieve this goal, we needed different cellars and storehouses. The next crucial step was the purchase of estate in Svätý Martin, where our largest vineyard Suchý vrch with 28 hectares is situated. At first we purchased only two thirds of the estate. The vineyard planting started in the year 2000, which was very hard year for wine producers. Only 75 % of vine took roots the other part had to be planted later. In 2004 we purchased the last third of the estate.
EU projects (2005-2010)
For the required technologies and the financial loans were helpful. In 2005 we requested for EU projects. In that time agricultural challenges started to appear. We were fortuned, that there were not many planners around, due to the inexperience in this field. Our EU projects involved companies rebuilt, vineyard planting and new wine producing technology provision. Seeing that we required to change our production and storage spaces, we developed a study with architects Sadecky and Piter. By the project realization we collaborated with Marcinka architect, who developed the study of presentational and storage spaces. Years 2006 and 2008 were challenging due to the building works. We had to produce wine and meanwhile to build despite of raining and snowing.
The rebuilding of the producing, storage, administrative and presentational spaces lasted from 13th of March 2006 to 21st of March 2009. On the 21st of March 2009 you could witness final ceremonial building approval of the new spaces on the event Pekné víno s rozhľadom (Nice wine with overview). The top of it all was the opening of 21 metre high watchtower with panoramatic view of the Small Carpathians. One day before this event our company was ceremonially sanctificationed. The building of our company was awarded witt the ARCH award nomination. It is one of 10 architecturally most interesting projects for its functionality, technological trends and architectonical solutions. The combination of elements of architecture and wine collection graphic design has achieved another great success during VINUM SUPERBUM wine exhibition. We gained an award for the best „Corporate Identity“ of company from Slovak architects association
