HM Lang
HM Lang in Stein an der Donau farms 2.5 hectares in the Steiner Schreck and Braunsdorfer vineyards, on gneiss, granite and loess, with vines aged 50 to 100 years. Markus Lang came to wine after 25 years in aircraft construction and runs the estate with his wife Heideline Lang; the plots in Steiner Schreck are farmed under demeter certification. Grapes are picked early and according to pH level, pressed over several days in a self-built basket press with 100 tonnes of pressure, and aged two to three years on full lees in a tunnel cut into the gneiss. The Grüner Veltliner and Riesling reach 11 to 12.5 percent alcohol by volume.
Markus and Heideline Lang
Markus Lang hails from Vienna and spent 25 years designing aircraft for Airbus and the US Air Force before inheriting a neglected vineyard fifteen years ago. That has grown into 2.5 hectares, which he farms with his wife Heideline Lang. His engineering background left him with a taste for building his own equipment: Lang constructed a basket press that works with 100 tonnes of pressure and presses the grapes outdoors over several days, slowly, with a juice yield of 80 percent. The pressing takes place reductively, after which the juice is given time to brown, producing a deliberate oxidation.
Steiner Schreck and Braunsdorfer
The vineyards Steiner Schreck and Braunsdorfer lie near Stein an der Donau in the Krems wine region. Steiner Schreck is among the steepest sites in the Kremstal, at around 320 metres above sea level, with small terraces four to five metres deep on Gföll gneiss and granite. The roots of the Grüner Veltliner go back a hundred years, the Riesling stands on plots with 80-year-old vines, and both are farmed under demeter certification. The leaf canopies are 2.4 metres tall.
Braunsdorfer lies in a side valley of the Danube at around 250 metres, with four to five metres of loess over bare rock, and is terraced like Steiner Schreck. The vines are about 50 years old; the Langs have farmed the site for four years and are converting it to demeter certification. Badgers dig their burrows into the loess, and in cold winters foxes move in alongside them until it turns warmer. That is how the Grüner Veltliner Fuchs & Dachs got its name, which also includes a small proportion of 90-year-old vines from Steiner Schreck.
Picking by pH, a cellar in the gneiss
Markus Lang determines picking time by pH level, harvesting the Grüner Veltliner at pH 3.0, around 65 to 70 days after flowering. The grapes are then physiologically ripe, and the wines reach 11 to 12.5 percent alcohol by volume. Fermentation happens spontaneously.
The cellar lies deep in the gneiss of the hillside, a tunnel from the Second World War with a constant 9 degrees. There the wines age two to three years on full lees, in wooden barrels, ceramic amphorae and stoneware, with little sulphur; the Grüner Veltliners remain unfiltered.
The names of the wines
Dritter Akt is the estate's only Grüner Veltliner that ages entirely in a large wooden cask. Kalt und Klar takes its name from the waters of the nearby Danube and rests two years on full lees in a 670-litre cask. For the Riesling This is not a love song, Markus Lang uses a 550-litre Bordeaux-style stoneware amphora, which allows a micro-oxygenation similar to that of a large wooden cask; the wine stays there for over two years on full lees and reaches 11 percent alcohol by volume. Fuchs & Dachs and the Riesling Hartstein are among the estate's top wines.