Red Scuffle – 2019

Rotes Handgemenge – Red Wine from Wachter Wiesler

The Wachter-Wiesler wine Rotes Handgemenge 2019 is a regional wine from Austria. This bone-dry, fully fermented red wine made from Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch, Austria's two red grape varieties, is a prime example of a day-and-night-drinking red that exemplifies the region's dark, spicy terroir, even though it is blended from several varieties year after year.

Manual labor in the vineyard, hand-harvesting, a mêlée – this red represents the fun-loving, no-frills style of the wine and the sometimes rather rough-and-tumble drinking habits of the people of Southern Burgenland, which can seem unusual to outsiders.

On the nose, it exudes a complex fruitiness of dark red and black berries, such as wild berries, blackberries and blackcurrants, ripe black cherries and tart blueberries, which meets a piquant herbal spice; some forest floor and leather are also present. On the palate, it is juicy, with noticeable tannins and lively acidity.

Wachter-Wiesler – Winemaking

The Blaufränkisch and Zweigelt grapes, hand-picked between mid-September and mid-October 2019, come 70% from iron-rich clay soils in Deutsch-Schützen and 30% from iron-rich green schist in Eisenberg. Christoph Wachter cultivates the vineyards of Wachter-Wiesler organically and biologically with a lot of manual labor and care. After harvesting, the grapes remain in wooden fermentation vats for 7-12 days at a maximum of 28°C, then gently pressed and spontaneously fermented with malolactic fermentation in a tank. Matured for one year in traditional, large wooden barrels (500-3000l). Unfined and unfiltered, bottled in spring 2022.

Rotes Handgemenge – a wine and its values

• Origin Wine from Austria
• Growing region Burgenland
• Grape variety Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt
• 12.5% Vol. Alcohol
• 6.4 g/l Acidity
• 1.0 g/l Residual sugar