Wachter Wiesler - Bläufrankisch, Deutsch-Schützen, Burgenland, Austria (2019)

TASTING NOTES

Imagine the perfect mash-up of Pinot Noir and Syrah - this is a beautiful, peppery, floral, dusty medium-bodied red with humming acidity. Silky texture, floral aromatics, great energy, and elegance.

Village level Blaufränksich from the Fasching, Saybritz, and Hummergraben sites.
Ferrous green slate partly covered with loam. Consummate ambassador of the soil
properties of the Eisenberg village. With a focus on finesse, typicity, and maturity
potential. The prototype of a traditional Blaufränkisch grape. Spontaneously
fermented in vats and inox with the inclusion of 15 25% whole bunches, pressed
after 21 days on skins, and aged 30 months in 600 3000 l barrels.

When Wachter started in 2010, he stopped using herbicides and pesticides entirely. Today, he is one of only three producers in Südburgenland who is farming organically and is certified as of the 2018 vintage. In 2012, he studied biodynamic farming for two years and he applies some biodynamic techniques today. He allows the weeds to grow in his vineyards, as they attract beneficial insects and eventually return to the soil as nutrients themselves. Rather than add fertilizer, he leaves the vines to extract what they need from the soil itself, thus instilling the wines with minerality and allowing them to express their unique terroir.

Rolling hillsides, small mountains really, called the pre-Alps, topped with forest regulates the temperature enabling harvest to start two weeks after Mittelburgenland (Austria's Bläufrankisch heartlands).