Matthias Hager
2018
Pet Nat Blanc de Noir
Zweigelt
Kamptal, Austria

Very early on in his life, Matthias had to take on responsibility in his parents' vineyard. Together with his wife, he is not just running the winery, but also a small little farm. The family business extends to a restaurant in the middle of the vineyard run by his brother Hermann. Taking over the winery so early made him more open to change, which made him switch to organic fairly soon, and by 2010 he was fully biodynamic and certified by Demeter. Which makes him still the only one in Kamptal. He owns about 13 hectares around the town of Mollands consisting of loess, loam, and different rocky soil.

The grapes for this Pet Nat come from 15-year-old vines and grow on mainly loamy soil at about 300m above sea level. This makes the prevalent Zweigelt grape a little more interesting. After the harvest, the grapes are directly pressed, meaning not much of the red color is getting into the juice. Hence the name Blanc de Noir, which is also a famous phrase for Champagne, is to tell people that red grapes were used for something almost white. After initial fermentation, the still sweet juice goes into the bottle and finishes there. It's a very fruity bubbly, with a little bitterness to make it interesting. This works perfectly with many lighter kinds of food and as an aperitif, or even to finish the night.

This wine is part of
 
Volume 21: The F̶l̶o̶r̶a̶ ̶&̶ ̶F̶a̶u̶n̶a̶ Black Edition