2020 Arndorfer Gemischter Satz "Terrassen 1958 Field Blend", Kamptal, Austria

ABOUT THIS WINE

A blend of 60% Neuburger, 25% Grüner and 15% Riesling, a traditional mix in this part of the Kamptal. It’s a single field-blend vineyard, planted in 1958 on loess soils. All grapes were macerated four hours on skins before pressing whole-cluster; fermented and aged in a mix of wood and steel. Martin bought this parcel on the Wechselberg from an older farmer in 2005: most of the terraces on this hill had been reworked and widened for tractors, but this little bit was the last piece with skinny terraces and old vines. Martin’s grandfather said that if Martin bought the parcel, he was going to lie to his friends at the café in town and say he knew nothing about it. Now, thankfully, we have this stunning old-vine Gemischter Satz, completely worked by hand.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

Martin and Anna Arndorfer are open-minded, curious, and committed to nature: these qualities have established them as some of the most sensitive and forward-thinking of winemakers in northern Austria. Both Martin and Anna come from a long line of vignerons (Anna is from the Steininger family), and their travels before taking over Martin’s family winery were formative, introducing them to progressive ideas on farming and vinification. Their personal experiences and family backgrounds, paired with their strong and creative personalities, caused the duo to break sharply with Kamptal tradition when they returned home to forge their own path. Now, in a short span of years, Arndorfer is one of the brightest stars in the natural wine world and a reference point for the new generation of Austrian winemakers.

The winery’s ethos comes from the belief that profound wine must be a pleasure to drink and a pleasure to make, and it shows in the wines. You can tell they’re having fun, given the diversity of their offerings, the constant exploration and refining of their expressions of different sites and varieties. They aim to carry “the message from the vineyard” in its fullest form, and their path is minimalism in the cellar. Specifically, this means no sulfur added at crushing, no fining of the must, no adding yeast or even a ‘pied de cuve,’ no stopping malo, no cold stabilization, the very gentlest (if any) filtering, and no additions beyond small levels of sulfur at bottling.  Especially in Austria, which is still relatively conservative in winemaking overall, a lot of producers consider this very risky, but Martin & Anna aren’t concerned–they are confident their wines develop their own microbial stability through a lack of manipulation.