Carnuntum 2017

Site & soil

Due to erosion over the course of many decades, lower-lying areas in each vineyard have thicker layers of soil than the rest.  In very dry years, the lower part has better water nutrition and therefore the grapes mature more evenly and fully than in the significantly more meagre places higher up. In years with a wet autumn, grapes in these lower parts ripen later and quite differently from the rest.

We use those grapes for our regional wine “Carnuntum”, which is a blend of 65% Blaufränkisch and 35% Syrah.

Harvest & vinification

As with all our wines, we don’t use sulphur on the grapes, we ferment with wild yeasts and we macerate very softly in large wooden fermenters without using any mechanical tools. Grapes and must are neither heated nor cooled. During the wine’s two years of maturation, we make only one soutirage – for the rest of the time, the wine just matures slowly.

The result is an impressive wine, very seductive with fruit, finesse and tempting acidity. It is a wine that sommeliers love to serve by the glass, as it evolves and improves the longer the bottle is open.

Vintage 2017

2017 was an extremely hot and dry summer that brought vines to the very edge of viability. In August, the young plants in particular had to have many clusters removed in order to relieve stress upon the vine. It was not until  September that the rainfall arrived, which slowed down the maturing process a bit and thus ensured a satisfying expression of the aromatic material.