Nowadays we can hear the experession more and more everywhere „organic farming”. It doesn’t only apply to viticulture but the whole sector of agriculture. Obviously we are going to look into the vineyard part deeper and what exactly this term means. And the same time, I would like to introduce a winery that has built all of their vineyards to this philosophy: the Austrian Seidl am Dach in the Weinviertel region in Niederösterreich.
What is organic?
So what is exacltly an organic farming in the general, agricultural meaning: it is a system that uses fertilizers of organic origin such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting. It originated early in the 20th century in reaction to rapidly changing farming practices. Certified organic agriculture accounts for 70 million hectares globally, with over half of that total in Australia. Organic farming continues to be developed by various organizations today. Regulations on “organic” food labels define “organic” primarily in terms of whether “natural” or “artificial” substances were allowed as inputs in the food production process.
In the world of organic viticulture, there are different definitions but the meaning is basically always the same: it stands for production of the grapes in an environmentally friendly way, which means taking care of the natural balance in the vineyard and the surrounding area, with no use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. Although the basic guidelines of organic production are the same all over the world, rules may vary from country to country. For example there are different limitations of sulfites use in organic wine production between EU, USA and Australia.
What to look out for?
There are different aspects what the winegrowers condsider before they convert their vineyards and viticulture to organic and why are they doing it?
• Health protection: Winegrowers use a lot of pesticides to spray their grapevines, for example in France, the biggest wine producer country, there were even death cases of constant pesticide use in the vineyard. Therefore, the protection of winegrower’s health is an important cause to go organic. In addition to that, most of the pesticides can absorb into the plant and consequently end up in wine, so minimizing the amount of residues in wine for consumers’ protection is another plus of organic winegrowing.
• Taste of the wine: Some people say it is a nature friendly production, which promote “positive interaction between soil, climate and plants”. The only way to really taste the »terroir« of a wine.
• Preserve the environment: Organic growing promotes production of food in harmony with the nature, and helps to maintain the natural ecosystem balance. Use of chemicals in agriculture contaminates the environment, poisoning water supplies, and destroying soil natural fertility.
• Ethical reasons: Lots of people decide for organic production because of their inner believes, such as respect to the environment, desire for zero pollution production, respect for flora and fauna, biodiversity preservation and/or their human link to the land.
Seidl am Dach
And this is where Sabine and Johann Seidl thinks they definitely need to go with organic farming. They have considered all the mentioned reasons and their philosophy is that: „We wouldn’t be Sabine and Johann “Hansi” Seidl if we didn’t also take a look into the future.”
This means developing the synergy of their historical winemaking tradition and their curiosity for new things with creativity and also means living and working with nature, full of respect for what they get from it. To show this to the public eyes upon already on the shelf in a wine store, each bottle of the new vintage is dedicated to an animal from their environment and the nature of their vineyards. What a lovely thought and dedication, right?
They are the 3rd generation of the winemaker family, a brother and sister who took over the winery in 2015. The village of Pulkautal in Niederösstereich is the home of their family and vineyards for around 100 years.
The Selection
Their main focus, like usually in this regions, is on Grüner Veltliner. There are 14,400 hectares of the Grüner Veltliner in Austria, of which 6,700 hectares are cultivated in the Weinviertel. It is a grape variety that can show you the terroir and its uniqueness hence they have 3 different expressions in their portfolio:
- Weinviertel DAC Classic – a light, fruity Grüner Veltliner.
- Weinviertel DAC Schatzberg – the typically peppery one.
- Weinviertel DAC Reserve – a fuller Grüner Veltliner, matured in acacia wood, with a gentle creaminess.
They have a lovely Riesling and a couple of Gelber Muskateller vinified as a sparkling Frizzante and a specialty, a semi-dry Chardonnay with a lot of exotic aromas and flavours.
We can find some red varieties on their vineyards as well, mainly Zweigelt with two different style, the Classic and the Reserve with fine tannins, matured in large wooden barrels and finished in small chestnut barrels. And Blauburger with Merlot blended together in their rosé wine.
I had the chance to taste most of these wines, specially the Grüner Veltliners and the two Zweigelts with the sparkling and Chardonnay. So I can highly recommend them as they are a great example of good quality Austrian wine and this vintage, in 2022 will be there first as a certified organic wine! I am really looking forward to taste the new vintage as well, until then I will enjoy the rest!
Can you guess the animals on these labels?
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