New Arrivals from Johannes Zillinger!
1/18/19 -
I met Johannes Zillinger during a dinner held at Michael Gindl's home in Hohenruppersdorf; amongst a jovial group of friends and winemakers lots of bottles were opened and enjoyed. His wines made an impression then, and a few days later at Vie Vinum in Vienna I was able to taste through the line-up. As we struggled to talk above the din of the wine fair, with me mashing info into my phone rife with autocorrect atrocities, I realized I'd have a lot of questions to ask later. There were so many wines to learn about, each with their own stories, divided into different classifications, boasting a wide range of fermentation styles and aging in an assortment of vessels: from acacia barrel, to stainless steel tank, used oak, to clay amphora and qvevri. And although I wasn't able to visit his estate on this past trip, I feel the wines speak volumes for themselves.
The Zillinger family founded the winery in the late seventeenth century as part of their mixed-agriculture farm, with the main focus given to raising pigs. Johannes's father converted to organic farming in the early eighties after realizing that conventional methodology was detrimental to the health of everything: from the family, to the pigs, to the vineyards. They changed to solely wine production in 1994 and after working over a decade on his family's estate, Johannes officially took over in 2012. He has since converted to biodynamics and is now Demeter certified. To assist with this, they have a garden devoted to growing herbs for biodynamic treatments and beyond. Anything else they may need for use in the vineyard is sourced from as close as possible. Their home is in the town of Velm-Götzendorf, in the east of the Weinviertel, or 'wine quarter' region of northeast Austria; with Slovakia directly to the east, and Vienna just less than an hour's drive to the southwest. Soils here are a mix of loess, loam, sandstone, limestone, and gravel. Forests on the hills to the west help block wind and hail, but sadly not frost, which is increasingly a problem with earlier bud break common to the region. The continental climate found here means summers are hot and winters are very cold, and rainfall is fairly low. The advantage of working with decades-old organic and now biodynamic vines is that they can adapt well to certain adversities in the vineyard. This means healthy grapes, which is paramount to the quality of the final wine. The respect for the grapes continues in the cellar, with gentle pressing, no fining or filtration, and minimal sulfur additions only when necessary to preserve style.
The majority of these wines were tasted in Vienna last June and Brooklyn in November of the same year. I can't tell you how often wines just taste better in their home country, but I was very pleased with the showing at RAW in Bushwick. The Zillinger wines stayed consistent, and remained compelling, and we are incredibly happy to finally have them available in the shop. We hope you enjoy them too! Cari Bernard
