“I’m just not as good as nature.“ — Karl Fritsch

Like his father before him, Karl Fritsch understands that quality comes first and foremost from the vineyards themselves. Karl Fritsch Sr. established the winery in Wagram, then known as Donauland, and had long been focused on improving the quality of his grapes – he had been minimizing yields to do so in the 1970’s when quantity was the name of the game. In the wake of the diethylene glycol scandal of 1985, Fritsch Sr. was among the first to formalize a quality movement in the region in 1989. It’s then no surprise that when Karl Fritsch Jr. took over 1999, he began to push the boundaries in the vineyard. Biodynamics were implemented as the heart of the estate’s viticulture by 2006. Not only did he improve the quality of his own winegrowing, but he was also a founding member of Respekt – Austria’s premiere biodynamic winegrowers association.

Weinberghof Fritsch primarily focuses on an excellent array of Grüner Veltliner from top sites, as well as vibrant Pinot Noir, and of course the region’s ubiquitous Roter Veltliner.

Karl Fritsch

Karl Fritsch knew early on that his focus would keep him in the vineyards. After graduating from the Krems School of Viniculture he became the winemaker at his family estate. As a technically trained winemaker, it may have been viewed as odd that he became such a proponent of Biodynamics in an era when the idea was still viewed as outlandish. But having grown up watching his father spend so much time in the vineyards, it’s no surprise that he’s adopted a practice that only enhances nature’s rhythms and the vine’s vibrancy.

His approach to winemaking and biodynamic farming are centered on the idea of stewardship and maintaining the land and vineyards for future generations. In 2025, his son Alex has started to officially get involved at the winery.

Wagram

Wagram, known as Donauland until 2007, lies just east of Kamptal and is bisected by the Danube River. The northern portion is defined by the Wagram plateau itself – a 30 kilometer mountain range that stretches eastwards. At 40 meters high, this plateau is the northern shoreline of the ancient Paratethys Sea and consists of weathered bedrock of granite and gneiss, with deep loess in the lower slopes. In and around Oberstockall, where Fritsch is located, lie several 1er cru vineyards where the soil is generally rockier with more exposed bedrock making it a prime location for vineyards.

The southern region’s wine villages center further east around the rolling hills of the Tulin Basin and Klosterneuburg. This portion of the region that lies south of the Danube is more fertile and is more influenced by the heat of the Pannonian plain. At the eastern end of the region is Klosterneurburg, the university in the eponymous town where the historical heart of Austria’s institutional knowledge of wine is based. The The Höhere Bundeslehranstalt für Wein- and Obstbau in Klosterneuburg (Federal College for Viticulture, Oenology and Fruit Growing) is the oldest viticultural college in the world today.

As of the 2021 vintage, Wagram gained DAC status for white and red wines.

Biodynamics and Farming

Karl Fritsch was able to take the quality farming that the estate was founded upon and build on it. After taking over in 1999, he soon began to implement biodynamic practices. It was clear that quality wine came from the vineyards themselves could only be enhanced by nurturing the vines to be vibrant and healthy – which the biodynamic process especially seemed to encourage.

In 2005 Karl and 12 of his colleagues began to collaborate and discuss biodynamics throughout Austria based on their ambition to grow quality wine. In 2007 their shared attitude drove them to become an official growers’ association – respekt. In 2009 they grew to 14. In 2015 they changed the association name to “respekt-Biodyn” to further clarify their aspirations. The association continues to grow bit by bit as growers throughout Europe continue to push their vineyards in ways that help guide quality and long-term vision of the future. As of 2025, there are 37 members from 4 countries (including our own Karl Haidle as of the 2025 vintage). Respekt-Biodyn encourages soil health, biodiversity, native yeasts, and minimal influence in the cellar while encouraging wineries to maintain their individual style.

Fritch’s takes a holistic philosophy to biodynamics in which the vine and grower are symbiotic. Site, soil, climate, and how the vine is cultivated influence everything, and it’s the vintner who is to nurture the process through careful attention with natural treatments such as teas, to create positive influence on the vines’ periods of rest, growth, and gestation. The lunar phases guide action in the vineyard with respect to the soil’s composition and microorganisms and vitality. The effect on terroir is to create healthy soils and healthy vines, and therefore healthy grapes and high-quality wine.

Work in the vineyards and the cellar is conscientious, minimal and purposeful. The goal is to create wines that are alive and unique. Wines that reflect their terroir and the characteristics of the vintage. “We only want to achieve when working in accord with the surrounding nature in its entirety; animal, plant, terrestrial and cosmic. Therefore, we rely on a respectful relationship with the environment and all its living organisms.”

The Vineyards and Wines

The focus at Fritsch is Grüner Veltliner primarily in the 1er crus of Schlossberg and Steinberg. Fritsch also makes excellent Riesling and Pinot Noir, and of course the region’s idiosyncratic Roter Veltliner.

Ried Schlossberg is in Oberstockall itself and is a sun-drenched southwest-facing vineyard of pure loess, (a chalky loam) at around 240 meters. These are full-bodied Grüner Veltliners that are well balanced, textured, and deliver the characteristic spice of the variety.

Ried Steinberg is a steeper site to the east of Ruppersthal at about 280 meters and consists of slate and granite. Grüner Veltliners from this site are crisp with mineral tones and bright fruit. The Pinot Noir is also from Ruppersthal.

Roter Veltliner is an indigenous variety to Austria. There is no relation to Grüner Veltliner and in the hands of producers like Fritsch, it is taken seriously. With more restrictive yields the variety produces a delightful wine of intense aromatics, concentration, and high extract. Wagram is its home.

“I wanted to be a winemaker since ever. The first time I wrote it down was in elementary school.” — Georg Frischengruber

In the heart of the Wachau, on the slightly obscure south bank of the Danube, Georg Frischengruber is realizing his dream. Georg is the fifth generation of his family to steward their estate, now 10 hectares, mostly old vine grüner veltliner and a smaller quantity of riesling. Since taking over from his father, Heinz, in 2010, Georg has trained his attention on meticulous handwork in the vines, incorporating organic viticulture, and focusing on natural fermentations, gentle pressing,  and extended fine lees aging in the cellar, to gain added texture, complexity, and clarity. Rossatz – directly across the Danube from Dürnstein –- is where the mighty river tapers to its narrowest span as it makes an ancient bend. Vineyards here slope gently upwards from the riverbank to meet the undulating edge of the Dunkelstein forest. The microclimate combines some of the world’s starkest diurnal shifts with a growing season that can stretch well into November. These are ideal conditions for grüner veltliner, on loess, to pick up tension and finesse, with an unmistakably piquant and vivid Wachau profile. Georg’s Smaragd veltliners reach a salty, sappy, spring-loaded ideal. Riesling, grown on Urgestein (primary rock) and in cooler sites, gains body, yet remains focused and fine-boned. Above all, the through lines at Frischengruber are purity, precision, and clarity of vineyard expression.

Tradition

While wine growing in the Wachau dates to the period of Roman settlement, the first golden age of wine was under Carolingian rule. Later, the majestic Benedictine monasteries of Melk and Göttweig housed avid viticulturists, devoted to understanding and developing varieties and methods of cultivation suited to this terroir.  By the Middle Ages, Wachau wine was already known far beyond Austria’s borders. The Frischengruber estate dates to about this time – 1563 – when the land  (“an old winefarm,” as Georg calls it) now owned by his family was held by Austrian aristocrats.

Georg Frischengruber

“Because of the great history of making wine in the Wachau and the long tradition of making wine in our family, it was clear I would work on the farm,” says Georg. Even at the age of eight, when asked at school what he wanted to be when he grew up, he responded presciently: “I want to be a Winzer.” He studied viticulture at Klosterneuburg, staged in South Africa, New Zealand, and the Pfalz, then returned home to Rossatz. “My father produced the wine until 2010. Then I took over and started my own way.” His way excludes herbicides and pesticides and embraces a philosophy of “working softly and giving the soil and vineyards what they need.” In the cellar, “we have also made big differences from the previous generation. I use natural fermentation a lot. It’s a bit difficult, but in the end you get very different notes, from floral to fruity. And the wine gains creaminess.”

Rossatz and the Wachau

“If ever there were a region which justified a geographical approach to wine, it would be the Wachau,” writes Hugh Johnson, mapper of the wine world. Citing its “complex meeting point of northern and southern climates and rich mosaic of different soils and rocks,” Johnson argues that the specific intersections of climate and terrain in the various Wachau villages are articulated in their wines. Rossatz is at the geographical center of the Wachau, nestled on the south bank of a prominent U-bend in the Danube — directly across from Dürnstein and just downriver from Mautern, home to Nikolaihof and a few sites belonging to fellow Schatzis, Urban and Dominique Stagård. Here the slopes are gentler and soils more varied — mainly Urgestein subsoil topped by gravel, gneiss, mica-schist, and, crucially for veltliner, loess.

The microclimates of the Wachau are extraordinarily differentiated due to variations in topography. In a span of just 15 kilometers (some 9 miles) harvest times can be as much as two weeks apart. Rossatz is climatic crossroads: the Pannonian climate of hot, dry summers and moderate winters, extends, “like a tongue,” as Georg says, into the area from the east. Cool, wet air masses, rich in oxygen, flow down through little, forested stone valleys known as the Wachauer Gräben. This draws in a continuous flow of cool, oxygen-rich air and contributes to some of the world’s sharpest diurnal temperature swings, strongly influencing the aroma precursors that form in the grapes and later characterize the wines. The Danube moderates temperatures sufficiently to enable record hang times – well into November for the Smaragds –even in this recent era of foreshortened ripening.

Farming and vineyards

Some 900 named vineyards, or Rieden, as they known here, line the Danube in the Wachau. Frischengruber’s principal Rieden are Zanzl, Steiger, Kirnberg, and Goldberg. All are farmed with organic practices and particular attention to the match of variety and site.

Steiger faces the Danube and is a prime example of a so-called “footslope” location, a slightly concave feature at the base of a hill that collects erosive deposits. Here, accumulations of paragneiss (gneiss derived from sedimentary rock) are several meters thick. This layer ensures a balanced water supply to the vines, even in the hot, extremely dry summers that are typical here (no rain fell for a full 10 weeks during growing season 2017). A humus-rich topsoil further improves both water absorption and storage capacity, protecting the vines from hydric stress while steadily supplying nutrients. This brings out a fruitiness in grüner veltliner that is especially suited to the expressive, mid-weight Federspiel style Georg makes from this site.

Zanzl sits at the foot of the Dunkelstein Forest. This is Georg’s coolest site for veltliner, as it faces westward. It is mostly loess over primary rock, so veltliner, which has a strong affinity for the deep, water-retentive loess, is the natural choice. Georg points out that at this site, “the variable rock shows its colorful side. The reddish-orange horizon represents a matrix of weathered, crumbly material coated with iron oxides, with some fist-sized feldspars. Underneath, the rock transitions from a dark mica-rich layer to a hornblende-rich amphibolite. The 50-cm topsoil layer consists of sandy, stony material enriched with humus in the upper 15 cm.” He attributes the fruitiness and “greenness” of veltliner grown here to the unique soil mix and exceptionally cool microclimate.

Kirnberg is a warmer, eastern plateau, less shielded by the forest. It is predominantly planted to grüner veltliner, though riesling does find its place on the cooler, western edges of the site. Georg notes, “The rock has the character of a mica schist with lots of dark mica and magnesium- and iron-rich biotite. The topsoil is mixed with loess. The dissolved carbonate was leached out and partly precipitated again in the light-colored areas between the mica schist layers.” This, he believes, accounts for the greater concentration and, in Georg’s words, “more mineralic notes, not typical of Wachau wine” found especially in the Kirnberg Smaragds.

In the cellar

The dry wines of the Wachau are categorized into three styles, defined by must weight and finished alcohol. Steinfeder is the lightest. The more substantial two are Federspiel (a term taken from falconry), brisk and bantamweight, and Smaragd (named for an emerald lizard often found basking on the drywall stone terraces that are the region’s hallmark), harvested last, and consequently more fulsome, built for depth and aging.

These stylistic differences play out within a very precise and focused range in the Frischengruber wines. They are not in the vein of many Wachau producers, who embrace botrytis and full-bodied expressions.  Georg is much more interested in purity and vineyard expression than power. To achieve this, all of the wines are fermented spontaneously and aged on the fine lees until late summer, adding extra texture, complexity, and clarity.

Steiger and Kirnberg are picked in mid-October and November for Federspiel and Smaragd, respectively. The grapes are crushed, then gently pressed for four hours. The Steiger Federspiel then goes into stainless steel tank. Natural fermentation takes about 100 days, with bottling in May. The Kirnberg Smaragd goes into neutral oak barrels, with natural fermentation taking about 120 days. After a maceration period that varies depending on vintage, grapes are gently pressed at a maximum 1.8 bar.  Afterward, the wine stays on its fine less until late spring/early summer, with bottling in May. For the Zanzl grüner veltliner Smaragd, harvest comes last, typically in mid-November. The grapes are crushed and gently pressed for six hours. After 24 hours, the must goes into neutral oak barrel, with natural fermentation taking about 120 days. Bottling is held back until August.

“The wines are kind of a mirror of us. They are harmonic, they have freshness, they are deep, they need time to show their great character, they are not everybody’s darling, and they turn better with age.” — Gerhard Kracher

Aldo Sohm and Gerhard Kracher, two Austrians, first met in New York, in 2004. Their friendship was cemented over a shared devotion to great food and wine. It wasn’t long before they realized this love extended to the dry grüner veltliners of their homeland — and a desire to make them. A few years later, at a tasting, Aldo had an epiphany when he was asked by several winemakers to critique their wines: “I found myself thinking: I have never made wine! Who am I to criticize it?” Over a long lunch later that year, the Sohm & Kracher project was born. Given the strength of the partnership and shared vision, Aldo and Gerhard had little trouble honing their concept: grüner veltliner grown in the Weinviertel — a region they recognized as underestimated, given its old vineyards, diverse soils, and unique microclimate — and made in accordance with two basic principles: the wines should be (low to) moderate in alcohol and should never be unctuous in character. Since their first vintage in 2009 they have kept a sharp focus on grüner veltliner, even as they have widened the scope of exploration across sites and styles — from the brisk, peppery “Lion” to the Chablis-like “St. Georg.” They now work with several crus in the Weinviertel and one pure limestone parcel in the village of St. Georgen, Burgenland, almost directly across the Neusiedlersee from the Kracher family winery in Illmitz.

Aldo Sohm

“I caught the ‘wine bug’ at 19,” Aldo relates. “I was working in a restaurant as a server and two Swiss couples asked me every morning what to drink with their dinner that night. They were super passionate about wine, and in wanting to do right by them, I read [up on wine] during my afternoon breaks and stumbled upon the beginning of my career.” Soon after, Aldo enrolled in tourism school near his hometown in Tyrol. After graduating, he worked at restaurants throughout Austria, pausing only to fulfill his military duty and to study Italian in Florence. Aldo passed the official Austrian sommelier exam and then invested a few more years working and teaching in Tyrol. In 1998, he attended, but did not compete in, the World Sommelier Competition. What he saw there fascinated and frightened him, but he recognized that “my curiosity was stronger than my fear.” In 2002, Aldo won as Best Sommelier in Austria, a title he defended until 2006. He then moved to New York, in part to improve his English for international sommelier competitions. In 2007, he won Best Sommelier in America and joined Le Bernardin, New York’s longest-running four-star restaurant, as Chef Sommelier. He now serves as wine director at Le Bernardin and as head of the eponymous wine bar he opened in 2014. “I love to eat and drink, and being at Le Bernardin allows me to keep learning and pushes me to improve myself … It’s hard for me to imagine leaving the floor, so I’ve always looked for other ways to expand my knowledge in the wine world,” he notes. In his free time, he applies his energy and intensity to road cycling, tackling some of the most grueling courses in the Alps on his “vacations.”

Gerhard Kracher

Gerhard is the son of the late Alois Kracher Jr. — a profoundly influential force in Austrian winemaking. In the 1980s, Alois recognized that Seewinkl, home to the sweet wine-producing area of Burgenland where the Kracher Winery is located, had the climate and geography to make world class Trockenbeerenauslese. It took some clever efforts to convince the world that he had elevated Austrian sweet winemaking to a level worthy of their regard, but once he did, this otherwise unremarkable wine growing subregion has been inked on the map. Alois passed away in 2007, leaving the estate to Gerhard, who, fortunately, had already been deeply involved in its workings since age 19 and has ably maintained and his father’s standards in making some of the world’s top botrytised wines. Outside the cellar, Gerhard’s “always on the hunt for culinary treasures,” as well as fishing and cycling — though “not as professional as Aldo,” he quips.

The Weinviertel and St. Georgen in Burgenland

The Weinviertel (“wine quarter”) is a quintessential European landscape of rolling fields and vineyards dotted with tidy, attractive villages. It is quite large — easily four times the size of the Kremstal, for instance — comprising the northeastern corner of Austria, from the Czech border the Slovakian, from the edge of Kamptal and Wagram to the Vienna city limits. It encompasses a correspondingly broad range of elevations, climates, and soils. Although grüner veltliner has a fairly brief history here, it is undoubtedly the grape of the Weinviertel. Nearly half of all vineyards are planted to this variety, which gives a signature expression of white pepper and vibrant acidity distinctive enough to have earned it Austria’s first DAC. Soils here tend to loam, gravel, and limestone; the climate is cool, shielded from the heat of the Pannonian Plain by the Slovakian hills.

Burgenland, on the other hand, is better known for its noble sweet and red wines. But St. Georgen, near the low Leitha mountain range, is an exception — for more than one reason. This is the village where the second parent grape of grüner veltliner was discovered in 2000 (traminer is the mother vine, St. Georgen the father). The parcel Aldo and Gerhard work with is a cool, mid-slope site of pure Muschelkalk (shell limestone), characteristics that inspired them to make a beautifully textured, distinctly saline Chablis-style grüner veltliner.

Vineyards

Aldo and Gerhard partner with growers who cultivate a combined six hectares in both regions. “It was not so easy to find the right guy who owns this type of vineyard and farms it with our vision,” Gerhard has said. Vine age is an important consideration; it ranges from 10 to 25 years for “Lion” up to 40-plus for “Single Vineyard.” The first wine they ever made, the “Single Vineyard,” comes from a half hectare about 25 minutes northeast of Vienna, in Wolkersdorf. It’s a south-facing hill of chalk-rich soils. For “Alte Reben” and “Lion,” the vineyards are an hour north of Vienna, in various south-/southeast-facing crus spread over five hectares in the Pulkautal. For St. Georg, the grapes are sourced from the Muschelkalk soils of a southeast-facing 0.4 hectares at the foot of the Leithagebirge, in St Georgen. All vineyards are 100% hand picked.

In the cellar

Gerhard makes the Sohm & Kracher wines at the Kracher family winery in Illmitz, Burgenland. All fermentations are spontaneous and temperature-controlled. Fermentation vessel is determined the style objective of the wine. Gerhard’s philosophy on SO2 is a blunt “as much as needed.” All of the wines remain on the fine less until very shortly before bottling and are fermented bone dry. “Lion” spends seven to eight months in stainless steel and gives a classic expression of grüner veltliner’s primary aromas, brisk character, and potential for length. “Alte Reben” spends two years in 50% in stainless steel tank, 50% in used barrique for altogether greater length, breadth, and complexity. “St Georg” is raised in 1,000-liter cask and third-use barrique, yielding an amply textured and superbly gastronomic wine. “Single Vineyard,” raised in 1,000 or 1,500-liter Slavonian oak casks for 3 years, represents a truly exalted style for grüner veltliner. All of the wines are “quite reductive,” notes Gerhard, “So decanting is something I would always recommend. But these wines can also stay open for two or three days, no problem.” Gerhard believes the aging potential of the Sohm & Kracher wines range from five years for “Lion” up to 20 years for “Single Vineyard.”

“The lower the alcohol in my wines, the more I can see the terroir.” – Johannes Trapl

One acre. That Johannes Trapl could turn the meager half-hectare of vines his family had to offer him into one of Austria’s most exciting wine brands is a testament to his passion, work ethic, and talent. Along the way, he’s helping change the way Austria and the world perceive Carnuntum wines.

Growing up, Johannes’s family’s property was a small, mixed-agriculture farm. Wine played only a small role (that fateful half-hectare). But in his late teens, Johannes grasped the future that wine could have and decided to devote himself to that, attending viticultural college before heading out to Napa Valley for an internship. He performed so well in Napa that he was offered a full-time job as an assistant winemaker. But before deciding to move to California, he headed home to talk to his family, asking what they could offer to keep Johannes in Austria. They said they would give him control over that acre of vines, with which Johannes could do as he wished. He accepted and began, though it was hardly enough land with which to make a living, so Johannes also took a job with the newly established Muhr-van der Niepoort winery, a partnership that included the celebrated and innovative Portuguese winemaker Drew Niepoort, who would have a great influence on young Johannes. In 2004, Johannes expanded his holdings with an additional ten hectares and set about to make his name.

He wouldn’t have to wait long. His region, Carnuntum, was primarily known as a source of big, weighty, modern red wines from Zweigelt—a style that Johannes rejected. Through his work with Niepoort, Johannes got to know vineyards in the Spitzerberg, a somewhat forgotten old terroir on a rocky limestone ridge, just five miles from the border with Slovakia. Blaufränkisch, an often overlooked grape in Carnuntum, grew here, and Johannes contracted some grapes for his own brand. In a shocking turn of events, his first wine from 2004 won the title of varietal wine of the year from Falstaff, Austria’s most prestigious wine magazine. Since then and practically overnight, Trapl’s career has shot up like a rocket, and he has become a leader not only in his region, but in Austria, for naturally-made, fresh-styled wines of purity, character, and complexity.

Region, Geography, and Climate

Johannes Trapl’s region of Carnuntum is well-situated, evolving, and on the rise, in part to producers like him, which redefine how the world views these wines. An ancient region most famous for the vast archaeological site of the same name, Carnuntum was once a vast and thriving outpost of the Roman Empire. For over 400 years from this strategic location between the Alps and the Pannonian steppes, the Romans managed the trade, flow of information, and protection of the northeastern frontier of their empire, while at the same time developing the region’s agriculture, including wine.

Lying just to the east of Vienna and west of Bratislava, Slovakia on the south bank of the Danube, Carnuntum’s situation is auspicious for the grapevine too. One of the warmer and drier locales in Austria, Carnuntum is most famous for being a producer of serious red wines in a country largely dominated by whites ( though excellent white wines are also produced here).

The climate is continental and Central European, meaning that it is prone to hot, dry inland summers exacerbated at times by the famously sere and searing winds off the Pannonian Steps. Winters can be very cold, though not heavy in snow. However, proximity to two bodies of water—the shallow, but vast Lake Neudseidl and the Danube River—helps moderate extremes of temperature.

Carnuntum occupies a geological crossroads too, resulting in a potpourri of soil types: glacial advances and retreats have deposited gravel; rivers and ancient seabeds have left limestone, clay, and loams; schist, gneiss, and granite result from orogeny; and winds have deposited beds of loess.

Within his total of 15 or so hectares, Johannes deals with elements of all of these soils, with a range of grapes (20% white, 80% red), ranging from Grüner Veltliner to Zweigelt. However, his greatest legacy so far is his spearheading (along with his friends at the Muhr-van der Niepoort winery) the renaissance of the Spitzerberg, that forgotten (since the Hapsburg empire) terroir in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains. Its shallow limestone soils in combination with the under-appreciated Blaufränkisch yield wines of extraordinary nuance, and complexity that have an almost hidden power and longevity.

Viticulture and Winemaking

To understand Johannes’ approach to the vineyard, one need only glance at his website, which highlights photos of healthy vineyards teeming with life, interstitial rows teeming with cover crops, and a flock of sheep to handle the weeding. These tell the story of a man who is obsessed with cultivating living, healthy soils, vines, and wines. Indeed, Johannes’ holdings are all now Demeter-certified biodynamic and have been certified organic since 2010. Johnnes works resolutely with cover crops, biodynamic preparations, teas, and extracts. As much as he focuses on thriving vines, he puts even more energy into creating robust soils, which, he says “is the only way to preserve healthy vines for future generations and to counteract climate change.” Also, he notes that such living soils are the only way to diminish sulfur additions, unnecessary manipulation of the wines, and to prevent high alcohol, which is a particular scourge for him. “The lower the alcohol in my wines, the more I can see the terroir.”

Cover crops are assiduously cultivated—legumes, oats, and rye are all allowed to grow throughout the season, as well as various plants that attract bees. Ultimately, cover crop seeds are allowed to remain in the vineyard, so the cover crops return in the spring without having to be re-seeded.

Zweigelt, Baufränkisch, Grüner Veltliner, and Pinot Blanc are the major focus, trellised and cane-pruned, though some vines get spur pruning. Canopy management is a prime concern in the era of climate change, and much effort is put into keeping the fruit zone well-aerated and partially shaded. Vines are on average 45 years old, but some of the plants in the Spitzerberg are around 70. These live mostly in the hillside band between 170 and 190 meters above sea level, so altitude doesn’t play a major factor. Johannes attributes more impact on the wines to vine age and soil, as the gravel, loam soils of Stixneusiedl (the home vineyard) are more fertile than the shallow, limestone soils of the Spitzerberg.

Johannes’ philosophy in the cellar mirrors the vineyard—“no nonsense added.” All fermentations are spontaneous—in open wooden vats for the reds and both amphora and stainless steel tanks for his entry-level whites, which also receive some temperature control. Malo is not controlled, but typically all wines go through it. Lees are not usually stirred. Wines are neither fined nor filtered and receive only a minimal dosage of SO2 before bottling. Entry-level whites are bottled 5-7 months post-harvest, while all Blaufränkisch is put in bottle after 12 to 18 months, depending on the wine, and then rested an additional 4 to 5 months before release. Trapl wines do not fall within the Carnuntum appellation requirements, which, he says, “favor bold styles, and that is not our approach.”

“Let the vineyard speak!” – Philipp Grassl

The sense of positivity exuding from Weingut Grassl and its young scion Philipp Grassl is apparent not only in their energetic, joyful wines but even on its website, whose About page opens with the boldface announcement, “Everything Will Be Fine.” More than an invitation to simply drink and enjoy the Grassl wines it seems to be an exhortation to relax and remain grateful for the things wine can bring us. And, finally, perhaps it’s a reminder to the locals themselves to forge on in a red-wine-dominated region set with the greater Austrian sea of white.

Grassl History 

Since its origins in the 18th century, wine has always been a part of the Grassl family’s endeavors. The first recorded bottling occurred in the 1950s, though it wasn’t until the 1970s that wines of any quality emerged. However, it wasn’t until after 2006, when young Philipp Grassl took over, that the winery would ascend into the ranks of truly serious producers in the region. Considering Philipp’s general dedication and enthusiasm about wine, in fact, he initially did not want to become a winemaker. As Philipp came into the business delivering wine with his father to the small taverns and restaurants of Vienna in the early 1990s, winemakers “had a bad image,” he recalls. “Wine was cheap and people drank for volume, not quality”—an attitude indicative of Austrian wine’s humiliating fall after its big additive scandal of the late 1980s.

Philipp’s attitude changed while serving an internship in Sonoma County in 1997. In California, he saw both sides of winemaking—intensive, additive-heavy, industrial winemaking, but also cheerful, high-quality, boutique winemaking that he enjoyed. Back in Austria, he was also witnessing the turnaround, in which a new generation of winemakers had to pursue quality at previously unheard-of levels to dig the country’s reputation out of the chasm it had fallen into.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the trend toward handcrafted, original, terroir-driven wines made with low-intervention practices, inspired him to devote his life to wine and his family’s estate. Today, the estate remains family-run, with the Philipp’s parents still at the winery and a small enough team that everyone does a bit of everything. The family farms 27 hectares, focusing on Zweigelt, Blaufränkisch and St. Laurent.

Carnuntum History and Geography

The tiny region of Carnuntum lies as far east in Austria as one can go, stretching laterally from the eastern border with Slovakia to the outskirts of Vienna (just 40 minutes by car). It lies on the south bank of the Danube, beneath the Wienviertel. If a point of axis could be found on which the region could be spun like a top, it would be the area of Göttelsbrunn, where the Grassl family makes its wine.

Wine—and presumably red wine—has been a staple product of this region for over 2000 years, when the Romans established one of the largest and most important outposts of their Empire. Today a sprawling archaeological site, Carnuntum held crucial strategic importance for its founders. It was a military stronghold, a major border defense post, and a significant crossroads for trade and communication that enabled the Romans to project power, maintain control over the empire’s northern and eastern frontiers, manage booming trade networks with the East, and ensure the stability of the empire.

The region was not only a crossroads for Romans. Over the millennia, ancient geologic forces have also had their sway—from the limestone of inland seas to gravel swept by glacial advances and retreats, and a river basin that has deposited sand, loam, clay, and loess. Clay loams, loess, and gravels give texture and weight to the reds, while limestone content brings tension.

Carnuntum’s moderate continental climate—hot summers and frigid winters—benefits the red grape varieties, ensuring full ripeness by the end of summer and allowing the vines to relax into restful dormancy during winter. Warm winds from the Pannonian Plains to the east keep things dry and warm, while extremes of temperature are moderated by the influence of the Danube—all contributing to the slow and gradual ripening that deepens flavors and polishes tannins.

Farming and Vineyards

Grassl’s vineyard philosophy is simple and direct: Let the vineyard speak, as Philipp puts it. Bolstering this effort is a full shift in 2015 to organic farming, which is now certified. Since 2019, biodynamic techniques have entered the toolbox, as Philipp appreciates the holistic view of looking at a vineyard. To that end, they’re working with some biodynamic preparations and producing compost. Biodynamic certification is possible down the road, but for now, the idea is to slowly ease into these practices and gauge the results in terms of vineyard health and impact on the wines.

Grassl vineyards are dry-farmed and employ cover crops like legumes and clover to deliver nitrogen to the soil’s organic matter and protect the soil from both sun exposure and erosion. Soils vary greatly between vineyards, as “the whole region has always been in motion due to the impact of ice ages, the Danube, and the evolution of the mountains,” says Grassl, who finds the diversity driven by the Alsace-like mosaic of soils endlessly compelling.

Zweigelt and St. Laurent vines are planted with both clones and vassal selections, the latter largely taken from the winery’s old vines planted in 1961. These vines still produce some of Grassl’s single-parcel wines. Vines are trellised in Guyot with cane and spur pruning to the tune of around 5000 vines per hectare, depending on the site with an average yield in the range of 35 hectoliters per hectare. All fruit is hand-harvested.

In the Cellar 

Unsurprisingly, Philipp’s approach in the cellar mirrors his philosophy in the vineyard—maximum low intervention, as he says. The focus is entirely on pure fruit: No yeast, bacteria, enzymes, or fining are employed. A tiny amount of sulfur is used for protection but applied as minimally as possible. Only easier drinking, fruit-driven wines are filtered and then only slightly to preserve freshness.

All wines are spontaneously fermented and then, depending on the wine, will go into wood, steel, amphora, or large cask for fermentation. Temperatures are controlled during fermentation, allowed to reach up to 22-23º C to stabilize fruit flavors and quash overtly fermentative aromas. The amount of malolactic fermentation varies from vintage to vintage—in warmer years it may be suppressed by post-fermentation cooling, but the malolactic profile is generally determined through blending of various lots.

“Great wines come from great fruit – which comes from great vines!” — Andreas Kollwentz

If the greater world is going to awaken to the vast and largely uncharted potential of Austria’s Burgenland for dry, complex, age-worthy table wines, it will likely be the wines of Kollwentz that sound the call. This estate oozes pedigree, from its ten generations of winegrowing continuity to its vineyards, whose written histories date back to the mid-1500s in one of the oldest wine-growing regions in the world.

At Kollwentz, though, pedigree is no crutch. The drive to maintain high standards and improve them is as engrained in the family’s sensibilities as the landscape of the Leithaberg hills is in its visual memory. As Andi Kollwentz remembers, he had little choice. “When I was only five, my father took me on his knee and told me, “You will be the next winegrower!” Andi remembers, even at that young age, accepting the charge dutifully, as if there could be no other outcome. In service of that he did a thorough five years of training at the school in Klosterneuburg and then worked at multiple estates in Bordeaux, from Graves to St. Emilion.

Under the tutelage of his father, Andi has been working full-time in the cellar since 1989 and in charge of wine production since 1993, now working closely with his daughter Christina. Meanwhile, his wife Heidi and daughter Barbara handle the office and hospitality responsibilities.

Soils & Climate

Kollwentz owns 25 hectares of prime vineyard land in the Leithaberg, one of the most venerable and historic growing regions in a country not lacking in them. Leithaberg sits on the Burgenland face of the Leitha Range, just west of the great Lake Neusiedl, a shallow body of water that plays a big role in the local climate. Vineyards close to the water live in a humid climate that promotes botrytis for the region’s celebrated sweet wines. But even vines like the Kollwenz’s far away in the hills benefit from the lake’s regulating effect—softening the cold, continental winters and buffering the heat of the Pannonian summers.

Viticulture in this area is truly ancient. Some of the earliest examples of Central European viticulture come from the Leithaberg—grape seeds from around 700 B.C. have been collected. Chardonnay, which grows exceedingly well here and is a specialty of Kollwentz, has been cultivated in the area for 900 years, with the first vines brought from Burgundy by Cistercian monks around 1150. Chardonnay terroir here begins at the 200-meter mark and rises, as the combination of altitude and the forests that cover the highest Leithaberg elevations create a cool microclimate for the white grape. Red varieties tend to exist in the band between 170 and 200 meters of elevation.

The Leithakalk vineyard is famous for its limestone soils, which vary between the shallow, extremely chalky ground in which Kollwentz grows Chardonnay to a darker calcareous soil that produces the Blaufränkisch. First mentioned in print in 1570, the Ried Katterstein vineyard stretches between 220 and 300 meters to the wooded crown of the hillside. Here many small parcels co-exist with stream beds, rocky outcroppings, and copses.

Viticulture and Winemaking

Kollwentz’s vineyards are all on trellis using vertical shoot positioning but one, which was newly planted on single posts, reflecting the way their vineyards were trained until the 1950s, when Andi’s grandfather converted wholesale to trellis. Shoot thinning occurs in spring, leaves are plucked after flowering, and clusters are thinned starting at the end of July.

Kollwentz grows cover crops between the rows to manage vigor and protect the soils. Farming is organic and sustainable: No herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides are used. In response to climate change, Andi has reduced the height of the vines’ foliage by about 20 cm and allowed the highest part of the canopy to grow thicker to shade the fruit.

While celebrating the age of the soils and pedigree of the vineyards, Andi is not someone to exalt old vines. Rather, he’s far more concerned with the vines’ health and ability to access water, regardless of age. He’s seen far too many grafted vineyards where only part of the plant is old and is skeptical that it makes much of a difference. He cites the famous 1956 freeze which decimated vineyards across Europe. A shortage of nursery stock prevented many growers in his region from replanting until 1959. The first fruit from those vines arrived in 1961, which, he notes, was the vintage of the century. So, no, he’s far more concerned with vine health than vine age.

His winemaking for Chardonnay differs between Leithakalk and Katterstein. Some lots of both wines ferment spontaneously, but not all, and the similarities end there. Leithakalk is aged and fermented in large, old casks of Austrian oak, malolactic is restricted to around 25%, and a little battonage is used. On the other hand, Reid Katterstein is fermented and aged in small French oak barrels, allowed to go through full malolactic fermentation, and lees are stirred. Sulfur dioxide is used during the winemaking and bottling process. Leithakalk will mature in cask on the lees for seven months before being bottled in April after harvest. Katterstein sees a longer elevage, maturing on the less for 12 months before going into stainless steel tanks for a six-month resting period. Therefore, bottling occurs in April of the second year after the grapes were harvested. Both wines sit only one month in bottle before release.

Kollwentz’s Blaufränkisch from the Setz vineyard grows on a southeastern facing slope at a relatively high altitude between 190m and 200m on sandy loam soils with a 20-35% limestone content. These grapes are given 3-4 weeks of skin contact and partially spontaneously fermented in stainless steel tanks. The wine ages for 24 months in small, neutral French oak barrels and is bottled the following January. It rests in bottle for eight months before release.

“Harvest good grapes at the right point of maturity and the magic of a millennia-old process can begin.” — Johannes Gross

In Austria, the name Gross stands for a respected family with more than a century of winegrowing history — and, as it turned out, a connection to the land going back nearly five hundred years. Johannes Gross is the sixth generation of his family to farm in Ratsch, a small community within Ehrenhausen, on the poetically rolling green edge of Südsteiermark. It is a place shaped by the climatic tension between the Alps and the Adriatic, with steep, partly terraced slopes, soils of calcareous sediment (Opok) and volcanic origin, and a diversity of traditional Styrian varieties, above all sauvignon blanc. The family owns vineyards in some of Südsteiermark’s finest sites, including the Große Lage Nußberg and the Erste Lagen Sulz and Perz. The terrain demands intensive hand labor, and yields are kept very low. After years of conversion, the estate has been certified organic as of the 2024 vintage. In the cellar, the focus is on traditional winemaking methods and long aging. Single-vineyard wines rest at the estate for a minimum of four years before release. The result is captivating, aromatic, lively wines — sometimes delicate, sometimes powerful — that reveal the diverse expressions of Südsteiermark terroir.

History

The roots of the Gross family in Südsteiermark run deeper than anyone knew. In 2019, a historian discovered that Johannes’ ancestors had farmed the Nußberg from around 1550 until the late 19th century, when it was lost due to family circumstances. When Johannes’ father Alois purchased a vineyard and farmstead on the Nußberg in 1986, he had no idea he was buying back the family’s ancestral land. The site itself goes back even further. The Nußberg’s first documentary mention dates to 1289. The name does not mean “nut hill,” as one might assume, but originally “the hill that brings prosperity.”

The 20th century brought upheaval. Before the World Wars, Styria had around 30,000 hectares under vine and was the largest winegrowing region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When borders were redrawn after World War I, separating German-speaking from Slavic-speaking territories, most of the Gross family’s vineyards ended up on the Yugoslav side. After World War II, the border hardened completely. Families were separated, and traditional sales routes to cities like Maribor suddenly became inaccessible. Styria’s vineyard area shrank to roughly 2,000 hectares.

Johannes’ grandparents had to start over. Under a bilateral agreement between Austria and Yugoslavia, families severely affected economically by the border changes received back small parcels on what was now the other side of the state border, and were permitted to continue farming them. His grandfather, Alois Sr., received 0.34 hectares on the Witscheiner Herrenberg, a renowned steep-slope site in what is now Slovenia, which had to be replanted due to years of neglect. That parcel, with vines now 60 years old (planted in 1965), remains in family ownership today. By EU law, grapes that cross borders lose any appellation status, so Johannes can only label this wine with the basic Austrian quality designation (thanks to a bilateral agreement signed by the two countries in 1953). But he still produces it and values it as a direct link to family history.

In the postwar chaos, fraud was rampant. Producers labeled wines with famous vineyard names from sites they had no access to. Johannes’ grandfather responded by introducing varietal labeling — putting the grape name on the bottle rather than a village or vineyard name. At the time it was a progressive move: customers could trust what they were buying. But it also meant that a generation of Styrian wines focused on varietal expression rather than terroir.

In the early 1980s, Alois Gross, Johannes’ father, saw an industry defined by high costs and low quality. In that pre-global-warming era, three or four out of ten vintages simply didn’t ripen. The average Styrian estate farmed less than a hectare, and many families were giving up. Alois and a handful of like-minded producers decided to stay and change everything. They stopped adding sugar to mask poor fruit. They focused on the best sites, made fully dry wines, and let the climate’s natural freshness and aromatic intensity speak. When the Austrian wine scandal broke in 1985, Alois and his colleagues already had wines that were crisp, clear, and mineral — focused on quality. Consumers looking for trustworthy Austrian wine found it in Südsteiermark. Alois was a founding member of the STK (Steirische Terroir- und Klassikweingüter), an association of Styria’s top estates committed to regional typicity and quality.

Alois handed the estate to Johannes and Michael in 2006, when they were just 21 and 19 years old. Alois knew from his own experience how important it is to be given responsibility at a young age. In 2016, Michael — who had been developing the family’s Slovenian vineyards — chose to focus entirely on Vino Gross after harvesting a perfect vintage in his parcels (while frost destroyed 100% of the Austrian crop). In 2019, Johannes and his wife Martina assumed sole responsibility for Weingut Gross.

Johannes and Martina immediately made sweeping changes. They halved production — from around 300,000 bottles to 150,000, and from 50 hectares to roughly 30 — releasing leased vineyards and flatter, simpler sites to focus exclusively on steep slopes and the finest terroirs. They completed the conversion to organic farming, achieving certification with the 2024 vintage. And in 2025 they introduced a new bottle shape (Burgundy rather than Bordeaux) and a new label design to signal a new chapter. “My wife and I thought hard about what footprint we want to leave in the history of our family estate,” says Johannes. “She said: ‘You’re a farmer. I’m not a saleswoman, I’m a farmer. I love making wine, I love being in the vineyard, but office time is dreadful for me. If we both want to focus on what we truly love doing, we need to get smaller, to concentrate on what we love.’”

Johannes Gross

“When I was six, I wanted to be an astronaut,” says Johannes. “But I gave up the idea when I heard how long you’d be away from home. Today, that would be unthinkable for me.” Johannes wasn’t much older when, “listening to my father talk about his wines,” he understood that winemaking would be his future too. “I didn’t study at university, but I worked a great deal in vineyards and cellars, traveled the world, and talked with interesting people in the industry.” He also had the good fortune of spending time with his grandparents, which gave him perspective not only on his father’s approach but on what came before. For him, “happiness is … living among vineyards, wild orchards, and groves, surrounded by family, doing loving and devoted work.”

Johannes prefers the German word Herkunft to the French terroir. “Terroir is a French word, and there’s no German equivalent,” he says. “But Herkunft is a combination of tradition, culture, and a small piece of land. I think that expresses better what I mean.”

Martina Gross

Martina grew up on a livestock farm in the mountain areas of northern Styria. Her family is deeply rooted in agriculture, but not in wine. When she and Johannes married, she resisted the traditional path of the winemaker’s wife stepping into office administration. Instead, she chose the vineyards. “She brings completely different ideas,” says Johannes, “influenced not only by what’s good for the wine, but by what’s good for us. What effect does this decision have on our family?” It was Martina who pushed for the estate to get smaller and focus on what they love. Johannes quotes his grandmother: “My grandfather always made the small decisions, and she made the big ones.” He laughs: “I think it’s the same now.”

Martina oversees much of the vineyard organization and leads the estate’s hospitality program, including seasonal terrace service featuring her homemade Styrian specialties.

Ratsch / Südsteiermark

Südsteiermark is a poetically green, hilly region stretching eastward from the state capital Graz to the edge of Burgenland and southward to the Austrian-Slovenian border. Nestled between the Alps and the Adriatic, steep vineyard amphitheaters alternate with meadows, forests, and small fields, forming a fairy-tale landscape with a distinct wine culture. “Winemaking has been practiced here since the Romans and remains the most important economic driver in the region,” says Johannes. Under the Habsburgs, Styria extended into what is now Slovenia and formed a single large wine region that was divided when political borders were redrawn after both World Wars.

Johannes explains the geological history behind the characteristic terrain: “When the ancient sea receded around nine million years ago, clay and marl were deposited in crisscrossing layers. Rivers and wind brought gravel and sand, shaping hill after hill.” The soils today are a very diverse mix of ancient marine and alluvial deposits: sand, gravel, marl (known locally as Opok), and limestone, with even some volcanic soils.

Ratsch sits at the heart of Südsteiermark, one of three Styrian sub-regions widely regarded as best suited to sauvignon blanc, which is typically planted on the finest parcels. Aromatic whites — including gelber muskateller, weissburgunder, morillon, and welschriesling — are also hallmarks of the sub-region.

“There are two great challenges to winegrowing here: the climatic and the topographic,” observes Johannes. “Unpredictable weather, extremely steep slopes, and a great variety of soil formations in our vineyards are both a challenge and a gift. We need 600 working hours per hectare — many times more than other wine regions. The high elevation of the vineyards near the Alps makes this a true cool-climate area. Aromatic, fresh wines with natural acidity and energy grow here naturally. Grapes ripen fully in this alpine-Mediterranean climate, and with temperature swings of up to 20 degrees Celsius between day and night, they carry both freshness and aromatic intensity.”

Farming and vineyards

The estate farms just over 30 hectares today and has been certified organic since 2024. About 95% of the vineyards lie in the Ehrenhausen municipality, and around 90% of the soils are of limestone or coral reef origin. In a sensitive climate, responsiveness is everything. “We work a little differently each year in terms of yield, canopy management, and cover crop management. We want balance in our wines, so we need balance in our vineyards. That also means lower yields per vine — around 1 to 1.5 kg per plant. We’re looking for the perfect grape according to ripeness, without botrytis. We believe there is a perfect ripeness window. That window is what we try to catch.” The wines are above all fresh, carried by natural acidity and energy that, in Johannes’ words, “grow here naturally” — largely thanks to the heat-retaining effect of the bowl-shaped vineyards and the nightly inflow of much cooler mountain air from the Alps to the west.

Johannes notes: “We find significant differences between the soils in our Ehrenhausen municipality, which are strongly calcareous — marl and limestone — and our vineyards in the neighboring municipality of Gamlitz, where you find gravel and sand, and very aromatic, early-accessible wines grow.” Gamlitz is where you’ll find their gelber muskateller.

Rootstock selection is becoming increasingly important as the climate changes. Johannes has removed vines his father planted on SO4 rootstock, which accelerates ripening by two weeks — a characteristic that is no longer desirable in a warming climate. He is returning to rootstocks his grandfather used, and experimenting with others such as Fercal, which help moderate vigor and extend hang time.

Vineyard Sites

Ried Nußberg: The home vineyard surrounding the estate and, as the family discovered in 2019, their ancestral land since the 1550s. First documented in 1289, the name originally meant “the hill that brings prosperity.” The total area is roughly 9 hectares, of which Gross owns approximately 6.5. It is a cone-shaped basin between 370 and 460 meters elevation, with south and west exposure and slopes that can be extremely steep — some terraced by Johannes’ father in 2000. The geology is unique in South Styria: layers of volcanic tuff are interspersed with the calcareous marl (Opok), and the groundwater has such high sulfur content that it is undrinkable. An unusual combination of calcium and sulfur that Johannes believes profoundly shapes the wines. The average vine age across the entire site is around 30 years, but the Nußberg bottling comes from vines averaging 40 to 45 years. This is the estate’s flagship wine.

Ried Sulz: One of South Styria’s largest sites (over 30 hectares in total) and its warmest. It is sheltered from the cold Alpine winds coming from the west. South-facing and open to the east, the site warms considerably during the day. Gross owns roughly 4.5 hectares here, plus another 2.2 hectares in a lower section that goes into the village wine. Soils are heavier calcareous clay, conglomerate, and sandstone. The family began acquiring parcels here in 1962. Average vine age is 25 to 30 years (oldest vines from 1989). Johannes describes Sulz as warm and inviting on the nose with floral and spicy notes and a structured clay palate. “It’s the first step into the world of our single-vineyard wines,” he says, “because it’s so inviting.”

Witscheiner Herrenberg: The family’s original vineyard — 0.34 hectares, purchased by Johannes’ great-great-grandfather at the end of the 19th century — on the Slovenian side of the border in the village of Svecina. Extremely steep, with lean Opok soils and vines over 60 years old. Under EU law, Johannes cannot use any appellation-specific designation since the border is crossed. He produces the wine nonetheless as a tribute to family history.

In the cellar

“In the cellar, we’re going back to the techniques my father had at the beginning of his time as a winemaker,” says Johannes — and increasingly, further back than that. He has studied 19th- and early-20th-century winemaking texts from which his grandfather learned. Before World War II, the books said easy-drinking wines should be consumed in the first year, but wines from great sites and great vintages needed long cellar time. Up to six years in barrel was normal. Postwar technology (filtration, earlier bottling) changed that practice. Johannes has returned to the old model: “Perhaps returning to the old idea — giving the wine its time, giving it time in barrel — brings us closer to what our true expression of terroir is.”

Every vineyard block is vinified separately. Vessel selection is determined by the needs of each wine, not by dogma. The estate’s barrel stock consists of oval casks of 900, 1,200, and 2,400 liters, between 20 and 50 years old. Johannes buys from the same Carinthian cooper his father and grandfather used, and still knows the family personally. The oak is less toasted than typical French oak, so the first three to four fills are used only for press wine. After that, the barrels can last 50 years or longer if kept full. The last barrel Johannes replaced was built in 1947 and purchased secondhand by his grandfather in 1952.

All sauvignon blanc wines are destemmed, briefly macerated, and gently pressed. They ferment slowly and spontaneously in traditional wooden vessels, then age 12 months in large wood and six months in stainless steel. All wines go through malolactic fermentation. Sulfur is added minimally, and only shortly before bottling. Johannes uses bentonite for fining, which allows him to avoid filtration and reduces histamines. Single-vineyard wines age a minimum of four years at the estate before release — far longer than the typical 18 months — to allow the terroir to fully express itself.

The estate maintains extensive archives of older vintages and releases them periodically as they reach their optimal maturity.

The Gamlitzer Gelber Muskateller comes from the neighboring municipality of Gamlitz, where sandy and gravelly soils yield highly aromatic, approachable wines. The grapes undergo brief maceration before a gentle pressing cycle. Spontaneous fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks, where the wine rests and ages on fine lees for six months.

STK Classification

Gross is a founding member of the Steirische Terroir- und Klassikweingüter (STK), an association of 12 Styrian estates committed to regional typicity and quality. The STK system classifies wines in tiers, from fresh regional wines up through village wines to single-vineyard wines. At the top are Erste STK Lage and Große STK Lage, the latter requiring a minimum of 18 months aging before release. Gross holds Große STK Lage status for Nußberg and Erste STK Lage for Sulz and Perz.

Gross & Gross: Jakobi

Originally conceived as a collaboration between Johannes and his brother Michael (who leads winemaking at Vino Gross, just across the border in Slovenia), Gross & Gross is today a négociant project run by Johannes and his wife Martina. Their Jakobi project honors both sauvignon blanc, the signature variety of South Styria, and the rural traditions of the region. For this wine, they purchase grapes from small growers and use stainless steel and controlled fermentation to emphasize fresh fruit. These wines are meant to show earlier and drink more easily.

The label is a woodcut-based pictogram depicting the key details of each vintage (weather, lunar cycles, planting, pruning, harvest) in traditional iconography. It draws on the ancient Mandl calendar (small figures), once created for the illiterate and still found in many homes throughout the region — including in the grandmother’s kitchen of Johannes and Michael when they were boys. The wine is named for Jakobi (Saint James), whose feast day typically coincides with véraison and is celebrated each year on July 25th in Ratsch. By tradition, wooden windmills are erected on that day in the hope that their rattling keeps the birds away from the ripening grapes.