2021 Ried Kirchweingarten 1ÖTW

Site & soil

Kirchweingarten is the only wine we make that is not grown on Spitzerberg, but in the village of Höflein, aproximately 12 kilometers west of Prellenkirchen. “The vineyard of the church” is situated – very picturesque – just below the church of village on a soft south facing slope.

The soil consists of limestone with some layers of clay and loess, which keep the roots of the vines cool, while the heads profit from the intense sunshine. This makes a very fruitdriven Blaufränkisch, both complex and lightfooted.

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 nearly two years of maturation, we make only one soutirage – for the rest of the time, the wine just matures slowly.

After 20 months, the wine is bottles without any filtration.

Vintage 2021

2021 definitly is an outstanding year.

The spring was very dry for a long time, and quite cold, which led to a very late start of the vegetation. Therefore the late frost could not do any damage to the buds. The summer brought small rainfalls now and then and was rather cool, which helped the vines to mature the grapes in a balanced and slow way. In the autum, the weather changed and we had a long, sunny and dry period, which brought us mature fruits with intensive character.

And wonderful complex vintage, a bit more powerful than the previous year. Great potential.