Johannes Zillinger, an outstanding vigneron in a country chock full of them. His family has incorporated some form of winemaking on their mixed use farm for over 350 years. It’s a lot of time to... Read More

Johannes Zillinger, an outstanding vigneron in a country chock full of them. His family has incorporated some form of winemaking on their mixed use farm for over 350 years. It’s a lot of time to get to know your land! Their home, on the wind-swept, continental plain of Austria’s Weinviertel, is perfect for making bone-dry, high-acid, light-bodied, and phenolically ripe white wines…the kind that are getting harder and harder to find in this age of climate change.

Johannes’ father took the bold step of transitioning to organics, back before it was trendy or cool. He could see the land deserved more than the routine cycle of chemical inputs to make grapes grow that he and his neighbors were stuck in. Johannes himself upped the ante to biodynamics, a system that doesn’t guarantee perfect fruit, but which necessitates more time and attention paid to every vine, making it pretty hard not to attain quality results.

The wines possess a tailored focus only possible coming from a vigneron who knows his wares. Many of the Grüner Veltiner, grown on sandstone over limestone are leaner than its Wachau cousins, and more textural and complex than GV in a liter bottle. These are under the radar gems, but I wouldn't count on their obscurity for long, they are just too good.