Movements and alliances are taking place in Europe on the biodynamic winegrowing front. Demeter Austria and respekt-BIODYN, another association grouping winegrowers devoted to the Steiner principles – including the Italians Foradori (Trentino) and Manincor (South Tyrol) – presented themselves with a calendar of joint events at the latest edition of VieVinum wine in Vienna, one of Austria’s top wine events.
«The goal – explains Niki Moser of the Sepp Moser estate, spokesman for Demeter Austria (pictured, left) – is regenerative and sustainable viticulture. The label under which this is done is of secondary importance».
«This view is increasingly shared among the winegrowers of the biodynamic associations Demeter Austria and respekt-BIODYN. For several years we have been offering training and joint events, supporting each other and exchanging ideas».
For Demeter Austria, Rudolf Fidesser, Robert Gassner, Niki Moser/Sepp Moser, Manuel Ploder/Ploder-Rosenberg, Niki Saahs/Nikolaihof, Georg Schmelzer, Johannes Trapl, Johannes Zillinger have joined. For respekt-BIODYN Clemens Busch, Kurt Feiler-Artinger, Michael Goëss-Enzenberg/Manincor, Fred Loimer, Hansjörg Rebholz, Alexander Sattler/Sattlerhof, Fritz Wieninger, Emilio Zierock/Foradori.
BIODYNAMIC VITICULTURE IN AUSTRIA
The guidelines of biodynamic agriculture, based on the Agricultural Course of the anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner, have existed for just under one hundred years. The first three Demeter wineries were certified in 1999 and today about 80 winegrowers work according to their guidelines.
Many wineries, however, use mixed farming. Vineyards are cultivated as ‘living agricultural organisms, individually adapted to their terroir’, on a total area of about 800 hectares. The spokesman for this group of winegrowers is Niki Moser of the Sepp Moser estate.
Respekt-BIODYN has twenty-eight members, with thirty-one estates in Germany, Italy, Austria, Slovenia and Hungary. It was founded in 2007 with the aim of ‘striving together for ever higher quality and individuality in wine’.
Michael Goëss-Enzenberg, from the South Tyrolean Manincor estate, heads the association as president. His deputy is Kamptal winemaker Fred Loimer (pictured above, right).
Respekt-BIODYN has established itself internationally in recent years, alongside Demeter and Biodyvin, as an important and driving force in biodynamic viticulture. In total, respekt members cultivate an area of approximately 1,010 hectares.
AN AUSTRIAN BIODYNAMIC WINE NOT TO BE MISSED
Kremstal Dac Reserve 2019 Riesling Ried Gebling 1 öwt, Sepp Moser: 90/100
We are in Lower Austria, in the Weinviertel, with the pure Riesling produced by the Sepp Moser estate. This is the winery led by Demeter Austria spokesman Niki Moser.
To the eye, the wine is the canonical straw yellow, with slight greenish reflections that underline its youthfulness. The nose is intense and elegant, dominated by hints of citrus fruits: grapefruit is distinct.
There is no lack of yellow-fleshed fruit (a pulpy nectarine), as well as fresh floral hints. Decisive and rightly sharp on the palate, which glides on notes perfectly corresponding to the nose. Centre of the mouth and closure lashed by the freshness typical of the variety. A Riesling at the start of its decades-long life.