Since 1722 the Malat family have been harassing these natural gifts and generational knowledge to produce stellar wines in Austria’s Kremstal. The young Michael Malat is the 10th generation to run the estate. He had... Read More

Since 1722 the Malat family have been harassing these natural gifts and generational knowledge to produce stellar wines in Austria’s Kremstal. The young Michael Malat is the 10th generation to run the estate. He had some big shoes to fill. His father Gerald raised the quality of the estate’s wines dramatically through the decades he ran the show. He was the first in Austria to bottle estate made Sekt back in the mid-seventies and moved their viticulture away from the chemically dependent post war model toward the sustainable approach they use to this day. In the process Malat helped to inspire a general rise in the quality of the wine coming out of Kremstal and was instrumental in helping it attain DAC status in 2007.
To say that Michael has filled his father's shoes would be an understatement. He has torn through them and is now producing exceptionally transparent wines that beautifully showcase this old and relatively large estates' extraordinary holdings. The winery itself borders the Wachau, Austria most lauded appellation and shares its soils and some of the mitigating influences of the Danube.
My first experience with these wines was back in 2016 and even then I was impressed. But Michael has tirelessly worked on improving every aspect of their operations resulting in wines that get better with each vintage. The current releases are hands down their best to date and according to Michael himself the qualitative limits of his estate have yet to be met.