Symbiosis
4 min read
with
Peter Honegger (Newcomer Wines) Co-Founder
Ewald Tscheppe (Weingut Werlitsch) Grower & Maker
Josef Muster (Weingut Sepp & Maria Muster) Grower & Maker
Franz Strohmeier (Strohmeier) Grower & Maker
Description
Farming - a living interaction between man and nature.
As a farmer, you are of course free to try to exert your will on the land and plants that you grow but this approach is at best naive and at worst totally counterproductive since the myriad different relationships beneath and above ground are not controllable or even fully understandable by you. By exerting your will, or seeming control, in the short-term, you in fact create an imbalance, a catalyst for a vicious cycle of intervention that as a farmer has you working harder and harder. Great farming isn’t about exerting yourself over your farm. It requires a step back for the ego and a recognition that you are working with the living and that, like with all relationships, there has to be give and take in both directions. Great farming is two-way communication between the farmer and the natural world in his/her care. Join the “Schmecke das Leben” (“Taste Life”) producers Sepp, Ewald and Franz (three of Austria's most avant-garde, natural wine producers) for a conversation about their personal experiences in caring for soil, plants and the living in their cellars.
Peter Honegger (Newcomer Wines)
Co-Founder
A native Austrian, Co-founder of London-based wine importer and distributor Newcomer Wines Ltd. Alongside his partner Daniela Pillhofer he has been working with Austrian winemakers for over 7 years supplying some of the UK's most progressive and important on and off-trade clients. The company now works with over 25 different growers across Austria with a profound and exclusive focus on growers practising organic, biodynamic and regenerative farming.https://www.newcomerwines.com/
Ewald Tscheppe (Weingut Werlitsch)
Grower & Maker
Werlitsch is a small family estate located at the south part of Austria, so called Southstyria. A beatiful land, green, full of growht and energy. All that you find in our wines too. They show up individual, are deep and complex in structur and full of liveliness. To me it is all about going deeper and deeper in our aim to work in harmony with Nature and people. This learning process is something which makes our work full of joy.
Josef Muster
Grower & Maker
Our 22 hectare estate is located in southern Styria, near the Slovenian border. We, Sepp and Maria Muster, happily live and work here. We do most of our work by hand, which is difficult on such steep ground, but we operate from a bio-dynamic viewpoint. In 2003 we became members of the Demeter Association, an international biological community for those devoted to bio-dynamic work of the land. Our experience speaks to the fact that we only grow lively, vigorous vines from healthy soil. This, in turn, ensures the production of quality wine. In order to preserve the vitality of the grapes, we see ourselves more as companions of the process than winemakers. We adhere to our motto of, “Less is more.” We focus on letting the wine transform itself. This tradition gives the wine room to express itself and makes the use of chemical additives almost unnecessary.
Franz Strohmeier (Strohmeier)
Grower & Maker
Our Mission - “It does one good to patiently observe what happens in the peace and tranquility of nature. And the best occurrences are those that take place without influence from outside sources. I have such high respect for developments happening unseen- both in the vineyard and later in the wine itself- that I´m afraid of disturbing and defacing the natural process through interference… (Franz Strohmeier relying on C.G. Jung) … with these thoughts, we want to encourage you, to become more sensible and alert. Make us aware, what is good for us and our environment. Our living today is in most things technical, what is quite useful. But life is also playful: Love, simplicity, silence, flowers, dancing or painting and art – these things include our inner world.
We are equally as passionate about taking time to savor our wines, to enjoy the perfect symphony of liveliness, salubriousness and sustainability.
At first it may seem naive for a winemaker to take a backseat and fully rely on natural processes. To experience the beauty and deeper meaning of this idea, we invite you to join us in exploring our vineyards.
With this description, we hope to pass on our fascination of the wine making process and provide a backdrop for the first moment you taste our wines.
About us - since 2003, we -Christine and Franz Strohmeier- have been working with great determination to produce absolutely natural wines without any additives or chemicals, and almost exclusively sulfur-free.
Vibrancy of the wine - as we have learned from our experience and observation - is caused by a wide variety of organisms already living in our vineyards. The term "symbiosis" (Greek: sym = together / bios = life) is for us the best expression to describe this interaction.
Along with the soil and climate, the variety in the vineyards and subsequently the aging in our cellars shape the character of our grapes.The grapes are harvested by hand. With time and care they are cultivated into wine.
For over 15 years, we have also been producing our sparkling wine by hand using traditional bottle fermentation.
#rawwineALIVE
Austrian Wine is based in Vienna, and is a national service body for the Austrian wine industry. The organisation was founded in 1986 with the aim to strategically support, coordinate and maintain quality and sales.
