Christine Saahs of Nikolaihof Wachau
Nikolaihof Wachau, the oldest winery in Austria and probably in central Europe, still exudes a certain kind of stillness, evoking bygone times while modern winemaking techniques take hold of many wineries in Europe.
For one thing, the winery, on a hilltop of Wachau Valley in northern Austria, honors the winemaking traditions left by early Romans who started making wines in the 3rd century in the region. The winery stores its wines in an underground cellar that was first built in a Roman crypt inside a church more than 700 years ago.
Indeed, the wines today are even made by a medieval wine press from an elm tree. In the vineyard, all the work strictly adheres to the esoteric moon calendar, which dictates the planting and harvesting of the grapes. It’s all part of the biodynamic farming philosophies of the famous Austrian Rudolf Steiner.
According to its winemaker Christine Saahs, biodynamic farming is the very backbone of Nikolaihof’s winemaking. The winery’s vines, soils and even leaves have all previously been analyzed by Demeter, the world’s largest certification organization for biodynamic agriculture, before it was certified biodynamic, making it the first certified biodynamic winery in Austria.
“There’s life power and energy in each vine, and this goes from roots to leaves,” explains the winemaker, noting that chemicals are avoided in each process of the winemaking. “When we ferment the wines, we use natural yeast not artificial yeast cultures. It’s not only for the wine, but for all the products in the vineyards,” she continues.
The granite-like soil at Nikolaihof’s vineyards
This biodynamic farming method is also credited for its wines’ longevity, she maintains. One of the best examples for her are Nikolaihof’s rieslings released under the label of Vinothek. Back in 1990s, the winery decided to store up its rieslings under this label and release them after at least a decade in the cellar. Since its first release of the 1990 vintage, the Vinothek series has created a cult-like following. Its latest release of the Vinothek series is the 1997 vintage, described by James as “a fabulous and fascinating wine that one needs to spend time with”. Score and note can be viewed here.
The winery currently plants 55% riesling, 35% grüner veltliner and 10% of other varieties including neuburger and gewürztraminer. With vines planted on granite-like soils, the wines have a distinct minerally character. Production is 100,000 bottles maximum each year.
The other two new releases are Nikolaihof Riesling Wachau Im Weingebirge Federspiel 2013 and Nikolaihof Grüner Veltliner Wachau Im Weingebirge Federspiel 2013. Click on the wine names to check out their notes and scores.
-NW
