In the loosely defined world of "natural wine" Austrian superstar Christian Tschida has few, if any, peers. This is probably because his wines seem to transcend the genre, being almost too clean, pure, and precisely structured to compare to the "glou-glou" wines that dominate natural wine bar lists. In fact, Tschida's top wines are age-worthy and serious, with wonderfully fine tannins and crystalline clarity.So these are "classical" wines that belong at the dinner table (or in the cellar), yet they are typically only found in natural wine bars. Why? Because, paradoxically, these elegant and seemingly obsessively-made wines are the product of an extremely low-tech and low-intervention approach.This means no chemicals in the vineyards, of course, but the cellar work here is what's shockingly minimal: the biodynamically farmed grapes are foot-stomped (or crushed with a basket press), fermented with ambient yeast with the resulting wine put in large Stockinger barrels for least a year. That's it, really! No racking. No sulfur. Bottled by hand, which basically no one ever does, because it's insanely time-consuming.He cultivates 11-hectares of old vines that have been with his family for 4 generations, since the 19th century. The winery is located in the Neusiedlersee part of Burgenland, the easternmost point of Austria and is known for red and sweet wine production. The soil underfoot consists of sandy gravel, schist and limestone. The relatively cool continental climate is moderated by extremely large and nearby Lake Neusiedl. But, Christian thinks the concept of "terroir" is boring. So enough of that.
Details
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Grape Variety
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Vintage
2022
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Size
750ml
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Farming Practice
Natural
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Style
Earthy , Elegant , Minerally
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Sweetness
Dry
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Body
Medium Bodied