Zillinger

Herbert and Carmen Zillinger’s biodynamic farm is located in the southeastern part of the Weinviertal, in the Vienna Basin, between Vienna and the Slovenian border. Nothing funky or overwrought here. Their wines are spicy with restrained fruit; still-waters-run-deep seems an apt metaphor for satisfying depth these wines offer. That they go swimmingly well with a sandwich, a brothy bowl of Pho noodles, or Michelin starred dishes just adds to their appeal! We get it when Jancis Robinson proclaimed Zillinger “One of the most exciting wine producers anywhere!”

Two Terroirs, Two Crus, Two+ Wines
From the original 7 hectares of old family vines, the winery now has 16, situated in 24 parcels, more or less evenly split around the towns and growing areas of Ebenthal and Ollersdorf. As with many Weinviertal soils, the top soil is composed of sedimentary loess, but you’ll find tracks of sandstone rich in silicates as well.

The Ebenthal vineyards have a cooler climate and more clay in the soils; Ollersdorf, to the south, has more limestone and sandstone – and little rain. Nowhere is the mix of Ebenthal and Ollersdorf vineyards and terroirs more on display that the Horizont bottling. A wine of two terroirs, Herbert and Carmen contrast and balance Ebenthal’s texture with Ollersdorf’s tension from up to 22 different parcels. 

Two cru bottlings come from single vineyards in each of the already mentioned growing areas: Hirschenreyn and Kalkvogel.

The Hirschenreyn bottling comes from an old vine vineyard called Ried Hohes Eck in Ebenthal.  It’s a more textured wine; muscular with svelte minerality, and “cool elegance,” Carmen says.

The Kalkvogel botttling, literally “Limestone-Bird,” comes from the Vogelsand, “Birdsong,” vineyard in Ollersdorf. Carmen says that they have searched out the parts of the vineyard where the limestone peaks out of the loess to produce a wine that’s “delicate and elusive, smokey and silky.”

We should mention the Neu bottling. It’s super fun, spunky and sprightly, with easy spice and tingle in the mouth. The acidity is spot on for this wine, bring lots of freshness without being screechingly aggressive. Good as aperitif, and of course it rocks the Schnitzel!

Vineyard Philosophy and Cellar: Balance
Herbert explains: Soil is crucial. It is particularly important to us to create a healthy, vital, balanced soil. Because only such soils can produce healthy, vital and balanced plants – and therefore grapes.

We reduce the growth of the vines to a healthy level without too much vineyard intervention. We don’t trim the plants; we don’t irrigate. We steer the vines away from vegetative growth [shoots, leaves, roots] towards generative growth [flowers and fruit of the grape bunches]. 

We do this through careful selection of cover crops [begrünung¹] and compost management; the vines should be well fed, but not oversupplied. We create the right context around them that creates the right level of vigor and generative growth. 

The result is smaller, looser grapes with small, aromatically concentrated berries that have comparatively low PH values, higher acid values and lower sugar values. This produces more exciting wines with a lot of flavor but less alcohol.

One gets the idea that they ‘tune’ the vineyards instead of working them, and, in fact, Carmen recently said over dinner that to get the full picture “one needs to come live with us and work in the fields and cellar for a few weeks.” As Zillinger is a reference point producer for Biodynamics in the area, many do just that!

Moving on to harvest and cellar work, Herbert recounts:
We are very decisive when we harvest. We taste the grapes, but also conduct analysis for sugar and future alcohol levels. We want vertical wines with tension. In the cellar, yeast, enzymes and fining agents are not used; the must gets oxygen, turns brown and ferments spontaneously with a lot of lees. This gives the wine structure,  stability, ripe fruit aromas and a terrific drinkability at the same time. Cellar work is fully geared towards the goal of preserving the flavor and expression of the vineyard. 

In the cellar, says Zillinger, ‘we don’t do anything anymore, really nothing ‘. The wines ferment on their natural yeasts; they only stay on the skins for a short time, but on the lees for a long time. They are racked without pumping, very gently.

Zillinger’s wines mature in steel tanks or in large wooden casks. Concrete eggs are also becoming increasingly interesting for Herbert. “I am convinced that neutral vessels, in which a gentle exchange of air takes place, are particularly good for the wines.” To guarantee stability, a very small amount of sulphur is added (<20 mg/L); the wines are bottled without filtration.

Gru-Vee or Grüner Veltliner?
The variety definitely has been used and abused in Austria, and the ubiquitous liter bottles of Gru-Vee out there often overshadow the grape’s fine wine potential. That’s a shame. There’s so much to love about the terroir-echoing qualities of Grüner Veltliner done well.  And, as a cheeky aside, we’ll definitely be  sneaking the Kalkvogel bottling into our next blind tasting of Chablis ;).

¹Herbert explains a bit: “Every cover crop plant has different properties. E.g. legumes provide nitrogen; phacelia loosens the soil to allow deep roots and serves as a valuable flowering plant for bees; mustard helps against nematodes. There are more examples too! Plus, don’t forget cover crops need a lot of water, and this slows down growth so we get complex grapes.”