Meinklang
A cow adorns every label. At Meinklang, this is the programme: over 300 Angus cattle graze on the meadows of the Michlits family, their manure fertilising the soils. At the lowest point of Austria, in Pamhagen in Burgenland, the extended family runs a Demeter estate that weaves together viticulture, livestock farming, and arable cultivation.
Werner Michlits and his wife Angela vinify wines that taste as agriculture should: spontaneously fermented and full of life.
Where cattle graze between the vine rows
Pamhagen lies at Austria's lowest geological point, and it is here that the Michlits brothers have been proving since 2001 that winegrowing can be more than monoculture. Werner looks after the 30 hectares of vineyards, Hannes the grain, and the youngest the cattle in Hungary. The parents? Tirelessly in the thick of it. The whole extended family and their children live under one roof, in a renovated farmhouse. Demeter certification here is not a badge but a lived reality: cow horns filled with fermented manure rest in the earth over the winter. Herbal preparations based on Rudolf Steiner's teachings enliven the soils. The cattle provide the manure and the grain feeds the animals, a cycle that has sustained itself for generations.
Concrete eggs and gravity
Patience rules in the cellar. Werner works exclusively with gravity: no pumps, no rush. The grapes go into egg-shaped concrete vessels, whose form allows a natural circulation during fermentation. Spontaneously fermented, unsulphured and unfined, this is where wines such as the Graupert Grauburgunder are made, a Pinot Gris left to its own devices, which is exactly why it tastes so alive.