Chardonnay Leithaberg – 2022

Chardonnay Leithaberg from the Gernot Heinrich winery in Gols

Chardonnay Leithaberg from Gernot Heinrich is a dry organic white wine from the eastern slopes of the Leitha Mountains, aged for seven months in large oak barrels. Not a lush, buttery Chardonnay, then, but a lean, saline wine whose yellow fruit is consciously held back behind its minerality.

Chardonnay Leithaberg is the single-vineyard white wine from the Gernot Heinrich winery in Gols, Austria's Burgenland region, grown on the other side of Lake Neusiedl. The grapes for the 2022 vintage come from sites such as Spiegel, Kirchberg, Alter Berg, Edelgraben, and Zwergsbreiten, whose soils consist of fossil-rich limestone sandstone and mica schist. This Chardonnay carries its 13.0 percent alcohol weight without becoming heavy.

Leanness, salt, and yellow fruit

The appeal of this Chardonnay lies in its leanness, as the saline quality pushes forward, consciously letting the yellow-fleshed fruit recede into the background.

Behind this lies the buttery quality of freshly baked madeleines, framed by a delicate smokiness derived from the wood. It makes the wine seem more serious than its price category would suggest. Delicacy and substance stand side by side here, which is rarely achieved in this field.

Time does it good, and air even more so, because when poured into a large glass, the wine opens up over the course of a quarter of an hour. Only then does it reveal the amount of tension it holds between salt and silkiness. Those who leave a bottle to age will find it even clearer and calmer in a few years.

What "Leithaberg DAC" means on the label

Leithaberg DAC exists in white only for four varieties, and Chardonnay is one of them; it requires aging in large wood and a style that allows the calcareous and schistous soils to be recognized.

The grapes were harvested by hand in mid-September 2022, after which they remained on the skins for a few hours. This was followed by gentle pressing and fermentation, which was carried out without the use of any cultured yeasts. Malolactic fermentation then took place, laying the creamy foundation upon which this white wine stands.

It then spent seven months in large oak barrels on the natural lees before being bottled at the end of April 2023. These months in wood round out the lean character without making it soft. Behind the wine is organic and biodynamic cultivation, Demeter-certified and part of the respekt-BIODYN association.

Where this white wine belongs at the table

Pan-seared arctic char, sweetbreads, and young goat cheese sit well beside this glass without any of the three sides overpowering the others.

It should be served at twelve degrees Celsius (approx. 54°F), because a bottle that is too cold simply masks the saline length of this wine. 750 milliliters are enough for four well-filled glasses, and because the wine continues to develop throughout the evening, opening it early is worthwhile. A decanter is not necessary for this; a generous glass is perfectly sufficient.

The other single-vineyard white wine from the same producer is the Weissburgunder Salzberg, which grows on the Gols side of the lake and spent significantly longer in the barrel. You can find the rest of the assortment at the Gernot Heinrich winery, and more bright bottles for long evenings can be found in our white wine section.

Chardonnay Leithaberg – a wine and its values

• Origin: Wine from Austria
• Region: Burgenland
• Grape variety: Chardonnay
• Demeter certified
• Respekt biodyn wine
• vegan
• 13.0% ABV
• 6.3g/l acidity
• 1.0g/l residual sugar

Organic inspection body AT-BIO-402 – Austrian Agriculture