Blaufränkisch – Saybritz – 2018

Wachter-Wiesler – Blaufränkisch Saybritz – Eisenberg DAC Reserve

The Wachter-Wiesler Blaufränkisch Saybritz 2018 Eisenberg DAC Reserve is an organic red wine from the Saybritz vineyard site in southern Burgenland, Austria. This single-vineyard red wine made from Blaufränkisch grapes impressively showcases its terroir: the Eisenberg with its iron-rich soils. Surrounding the Eisenberg and its iron-rich earth, a wide variety of rock formations and soil compositions can be found within a very small area: oxidized green schist, quartz phyllite, calcareous schist, and serpentinite. This red wine, from a region only declared a DAC (district-specific wine) origin in 2010, is distinctive, mineral-driven, spicy, cool, and precise, with vibrant acidity and a feminine tannin structure.

On the nose, the garnet-red Blaufränkisch exudes dark berry fruits, jet-black blackberries, cassis, and tart sloe, which meet a piquant herbal spice, with forest floor and fermented pepper notes appearing as well. On the palate, the single-vineyard wine is juicy, with cool minerality, vibrantly delicate yet well-structured, and salty on the finish. The Wachter-Wiesler Blaufränkisch Saybritz is a red wine of quiet greatness with immense aging potential, provided one can muster the necessary patience.

With great talent and careful intuition, the winemaker succeeds in crafting a red of the finest quality, a magnificent ambassador of its extraordinary terroir, which reveals the Wachter-Wieslers' great passion for their soils and their Blaufränkisch grape variety, and which is characterized more by finesse and complexity than by opulence. A wine with great storage potential that one can fully surrender to.

The Saybritz 2018 ranks 75th in James Suckling's list of the Top 100 Wines of Austria 2021.

"Christoph Wachter has catapulted the family winery among the best Blaufränkisch producers in Austria in a very short time. He currently cultivates the most daring, edgy, and puristic style around the Eisenberg," says Sascha Speicher, describing his impressions of the Wachter-Wiesler wines from the magical Eisenberg.

Saybritz Eisenberg DAC Reserve – Vinification

A single-vineyard Blaufränkisch like the Saybritz represents the pinnacle of the Wachter-Wiesler winery. Single-vineyard wines from old vines, deeply rooted in the very special (if not to say: unparalleled) soil structures of the Eisenberg. "Lowest intervention" wines with great aging potential that aim to be companions for decades. Magnificent wines that grow in all their facets from year to year, constantly developing, and counting among the truly great, region-typical red wines of Austria.

The steep vineyards for this wine are located on the upper Eisenberg and have a south-southeastern exposure. The deeply rooted, 40-60-year-old vines grow sheltered from the weather by the forest on ancient green schist from the Penninic nappes, covered with humus-rich loam. The parent material of the soil is approximately 10 million years old. The vineyards are sun-drenched, stony, and in parts very steep, and in addition to the special soils, are characterized by the Pannonian-Illyrian climate. Christoph Wachter cultivates the Wachter-Wiesler vineyards organically, using a great deal of manual labor and care. The Blaufränkisch grapes, harvested by hand from mid-September to mid-October 2018, remain on the skins for 24 days in wooden fermentation vats, ferment spontaneously with natural vineyard yeasts, and are subsequently pressed gently. They then undergo malolactic fermentation and mature for 22 months in traditional large wooden barrels (2000l). Bottled unfined and unfiltered in the summer of 2021.

Blaufränkisch – a wine and its values

• Origin: Wine from Austria
• Growing region: Burgenland
• Site: Saybritz
• Eisenberg DAC Reserve
• Grape variety: Blaufränkisch
• 13% ABV
• 5.8 g/l acidity
• 1.0 g/l residual sugar
  

Organic inspection body AT-BIO-402 – Austrian Agriculture