Sa va 2024

A dry Gelber Traminer that speaks of salt, herbs and limestone. A luminous golden yellow with greenish reflections reveals the work with the grape skins. The nose opens with salted lemon and salty meadows, followed by dried thyme, oregano, rosemary and a hint of lavender, alongside fresh lemon balm, bronze fennel and lemon thyme. The fruit stays understated: baked mirabelle, yellow plum, candied quince, candied ginger. Butter biscuit, shortcrust pastry and yeast round things out without weighing the wine down.

The vines grow on limestone in Burgenland. Gernot and Heike Heinrich started out in 1990 in Gols on Lake Neusiedl with two hectares, expanding the estate parcel by parcel to a hundred hectares, including steep, stony sites on the Leithagebirge with its cool limestone slopes and on the Parndorf Plateau. Everything has been farmed biodynamically since 2006.

Gelber Traminer from biodynamic Demeter farming, spontaneously fermented and aged in amphora. Clay instead of wood means micro-oxygenation without wood aromas. In the cellar, gravity does the work instead of a pump. The wine is bottled unfiltered and without added sulphur, reaching the glass at 12.5% ABV.

Firm, juicy, clearly structured. Saline limestone notes, fine phenolics and lively bitter notes provide tension and backbone, while the lean alcohol steps back behind the minerality. The wine demands attention without becoming tiring. The finish is long, bringing together herbs, limestone and fine yeasty notes.

Demeter-certified since 2017, and the Heinrichs are among the founding members of respekt-BIODYN, which they established in 2009 together with other biodynamic pioneers. Clay amphorae are increasingly replacing small oak barrels in the cellar. Fine reduction and controlled oxidation give the wine its depth, while the absence of filtration and sulphur give it its texture.