“The question is: how naturally and sustainably can I produce wine? The grape acts as a medium. If a vineyard has a calcareous soil, I want to make it tastable in the wine. If it has pebbles, I want to taste the pebbles. Biodynamic methods allow me to express this.“

Claus Preisinger processes grapes from around 40 ha (100 acres) on the north shore of Lake Neusiedl, working on both sides of Lake Neusiedl – on the “west coast” and “east coast”, as he likes to say.

“I want to bring the essence of the grapes as pure and low-tech as possible into the bottle, all natural and visceral. I am a minimalist and a fanatic of quality for all my wines.” Since 2002 all wines are fermented spontaneously without use of cultivated yeasts. It is important for Claus not to extract too much from the grapes, because the wines already have plenty of tannins and ripe acidity. They could otherwise become too heavy for his taste.

The wines only receive a very moderate dose or no sulphur dioxide at all; tannins and acidity keep them stable. “As I am increasingly intolerant of sulphur in food and wines, I cannot produce such a thing myself”, he explains.