Kollwentz - Römerhof Wine Estate

All grapes from our own vineyards are picked by hand. This implies rigorous selection directly on the vine - only fully ripe, unscathed fruit ends up in the cellar. By the way: we have no irrigation systems in our vineyards. It is true that in extremely dry years it may happen that we forgo one or another harvest from young vineyards. On the other hand, the vines will root substantially more deeply, thus releasing extra aromas and flavors as well as power into the grapes.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Drawn directly off the yeast...

…the 2011 Sauvignon Blanc Steinmühle and the Chardonnay Leithagebirge are now in the bottle, as are Tatschler and Gloria from 2010.
The top red wines from the vintage 2009—Steinzeiler, Point and Setz—have been bottled after thirty months maturing. They're going to spend a few more months rounding themselves out in the cellar, and will be released on the 1st of September.

Anton Kollwentz: "The 2009 vintage is the best we've had since 1979!"

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Tuesday, April 10, 2012

29. March 2012

Spring in the Leithagebirge—simply heavenly.

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18. March 2012

Many thanks for the good wishes! If you're curious about what we might've been drinking...

... among others this 97er from Gunter Künstler in the Rheingau

1. March 2012

The big Chardonnay and Pinot Gris tasting at the magazine Wein.Pur— 197 wines submitted from Austria, Germany and the Alto Adige.

...it's an uncontested fact that the best chardonnays are grown in very particular locations: soils with limestone and a bit of clay, warm days and cool nights. Only 4% of the vineyard sites in Burgenland are planted with Chardonnay, and just 144 Hectares of this area is in the Leithagebirge. But this grape variety can achieve its most aristocratic expression on these limestone-rich slopes—if the growers proceed in an adequately sensitive fashion. One wine even attained the rarely-bestowed title, 'World-Class,' the 2008 Gloria.

23. February 2012

Mornings cold, warmer at noon. We are busy with the pruning and the removal of old wood from the wires. Here's two different modes of shredding—watchdog Esther, compared with tractor.

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9. February 2012

Wine Fair at Schloss Hugenpoet—or—Dutta drinks her way through….

…right over to Andi Kollwentz from Austria. Always a Burgenländer benchmark where red wine is concerned—but I’m trying the two whites. Both 100% Chardonnay. And although I know the previous vintages, once more I’m astonished by the quality and the style. First came Tatschler 2009 in a Zalto Universal glass, which you get here upon paying 20€ deposit. And equally important as the appropriate glass—there are no dishcloth aromas clinging to it! That has happened elsewhere…

Tatschler: southeastern exposure on the Leithigebirge, grown in decomposed slate soils with bits of limestone. Great presence, round fruit, lovely minerality... But I liked Gloria even better, grown in the most highly situated vineyard in the hills—and here the fossil limestone really comes through. Slightly reticent at first, a bit austere, but equipped with great finesse and a marvellous finish. What a wine! Mr Kollwentz likes wines grown in limestone—the ones from Germany as well. He’s not a crowd-pleaser. That’s exactly my own point of view. Not without reason are his red wines so famous.

9. February 2012

very latest from the magazine Vinaria!

370 wines were sampled in the Vinaria Premium Red Wine tasting.

First place went to the Kollwentz Wine Estate for their Blaufränkisch Setz 2008, which managed to keep up with the very best from 2009.

also, Blaufränkisch Point 2007 and Steinzeiler 2008 scored in the Top Fifteen, with 17.9 and 17.8 points respectively.

7. February 2012

The snow…

… in Burgenland is unfairly distributed—one side of the lake gets it all, while the other has none. Even as the wind works its magic ways to make sculptures out of the drifts, we are hard at work in the cellar. Red wines are racked and the barrels rinsed out.

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24. January 2012

Second breakfast at the Observation Point on the Steinmühle! A bite to eat with a lovely view is rather pleasant, even if it does rain a bit…

23. January 2012

The pruning is—so long as the weather is dry, without any biting wind—a rather relaxing aspect of the winter work. First the vines are cut back, and then the excess wood is chopped up.

…one can also do this with a chipper…

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19. January 2012

Thirteen vintages of Eichkogel.

a vertical of the years from 2009 reaching back to 1997 demonstrates the virtues of the estate's 'second' wine—elegance and finesse. This bottling also shows extremely good aging potential—as demonstrated by the oldest wine, the still very fine and palatable 1997.

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22. Dezember 2011

Forest work in the Leithagebirge. And if you work hard, then you should be well fed! These pork knuckles are roasted for three and a half hours in the embers from yesterday evening's fire, and the flesh literally falls off the bone— super good!