Michael Gindl Nanu?! Rotberger Red 2019

Raspberry, sour cherry, cocoa powder, cinnamon

 

The Gindl farm, which has been in the family since 1807, has long practiced mixed agriculture. Conventional crops and livestock, as well as forestry and wine production share the attention of the land and the people who work it. Michael Gindl, born in 1983, had already begun managing the family’s winemaking operation by the time he graduated agricultural school in 2002. Taking over the entire farm soon after, Michael began steering their operations toward biodynamics and total self-sufficiency. This meant expanding the farm’s acreage, adding new animal species, and working more broadly to align his practices with the ideals and standards of the Demeter association of biodynamic farming.

 

Michael’s efforts at optimization are relentless. In the past decade, he has begun breeding highland cattle, as well as horses to work in his 10 hectares of vines. Breton dwarf sheep pull their weight by grazing in the vineyards, and pigs are the object of the Gindl farm’s nascent butchering operation. Increasingly favoring wooden barrels over steel tanks, Michael harvests acacia and oak from his own forests to construct vessels for fermentation and aging. Increasingly, the dynamic and varied practices at work on the Gindl estate allow it to closely embody the biodynamic ideal of a holistic, autonomous farm.

 

Michael’s grapes are harvested by hand and pressed very gently before undergoing a spontaneous fermentation without the assistance of selected yeast or temperature control. The wines are rarely racked, and are always left unfined and unfiltered, with zero or minimal added sulfur. In summation of his winemaking practices, Michael exclaims: “I really try to do as little as possible – in fact, nothing!”