Zillinger ‘Radikal’ Grüner Veltliner 2016

Zillinger

“One of the most exciting wine producers anywhere!” -Jancis Robinson.

Zillinger makes wines with nature-loving, full of passion, and ignoring current trends without compromise. They focus on even more agricultural work, natural cycle management, and more holistic thinking. With the aim of giving their wines and themselves “time to mature”.

Zillinger’s wines are completely natural. Nothing is added or removed during the entire vinification process. Only when necessary, minimal SO2 is added to stabilize the wine before filling.

Their vineyards are home to many plants, insects, and small animals. The organic vineyards which were switched to biodynamic viticulture in 2016. They have been always concerned with the quality of their wines and biological diversity in their vineyards. The motivation was to avoid unwanted chemicals and make them more vibrant through this creative working method.

16ha of their vineyards are located in the Vienna Basin which is underlain by sediments of Loess. The fine silt is formed from silicates: quartz, feldspar, mica, and clay minerals. The most important sites are called “Weintal”, “Hohes Eck”, “Steinberg”, and “Vogelsang.

The history of Weinviertel has not been easy. As the largest and therefore non-homogenous wine-growing region, it became the first Districtus Austriae Controllatus in 2003. For several reasons, they decided to bottle their wines without following DAC.

The soils of the vast Weinviertel are composed of various elements such as gneiss, granite, calcareous sandstone, and schist clay marl.

The climate is thermally continental and humidly maritime. The cool temperature (average temperature is around 10℃), the long hours of sunshine (1,750 to 1,900 hours per year), and the less rainfall (annual rainfall is less than 600 mm) are very suitable to their grape varieties such as Gruner Veltliner or Welschriesling.

We can see the handwriting and character of each soil type in Zillinger’s wines. Their winemaking is not about promising business or better rating, it is more about standing for themselves.