As a Vienna restaurant owner, Stefan Hajszan dreamed about bringing back the field blends that were the default for most Viennese wines. He got the famous architect Heinz Neumann to invest and buy more plots and transformed them to bio-dynamic quickly. He even got the local government to create a label for authentic, local Gemischter Satz. But it soon became too overwhelming to run restaurants and a winery, so they sold it to well-known local quality winemaker Fritz Wieninger. Since 2014 he is running it and focusing on the Gemischter Satz and some specific grape varieties. As part of Respekt Biodyn, he farms the 22 hectares and more recently ventured into natural wine and using amphorae to age and ferment.
I love Grüner Veltliner, and this is no exception. The grapes come from the sunny hills of the Bisamberg that still belong to the city of Vienna. After the harvest, the crushed grapes went directly into a stainless steel tank to macerate with the skins for four months. As this is relatively long, you can call this wine “officially” an orange wine. After the fermentation, it was separated from the skins and left to age for another six weeks. Without any fining or filtration, it went into the bottle and kicks of a firework of aromas. A little bit of tea mixed with bergamot and a spicy herbal structure to round this out. Tastewise the bergamot is joined by orange marmalade with a nutty proper grip to guide you the way. This is a food wine with its light tannins and solid acidity and is very good with Asian food, for instance, a medium-hot curry.