Family business.

The Bäuerl family on the Loibenberg

Actually, Wolfgang Bäuerl didn’t want to become a winemaker at all. Already as a boy he disliked the profession: “To get up at five and work in the vineyard was normal. While the others were sunbathing at the pool, I had to soak in 10° cold water and clean the bottles…” Therefore he finished the College of Structural Engineering but soon afterwards he figured out that his talents were more in the area of graphics - which is still his hobby up to today.

Awards from the beginning.

Coming from another discipline, he nevertheless took over the family vineyard – and in the same year got second best in an international tasting of 90 wines from Germany, Alsace and Austria, right after F.X. Pichler, his neighbour in Loiben and on the Kellerberg. It was also on this perfect site in Wachau where his Vinaria winning wine had grown: the 93 Riesling Smaragd.

Just about 3 hectars on Kellerberg and Loibenberg are hardly enough to live on but year after year Wolfgang Bäuerl is creating top level wines that are basically sold to customers on the premises. But in the last few years some importers made it possible that Bäuerl wines are available abroad, even in Australia people love the mineral Rieslings from Loiben.

Originality as principle

The typical stone terraces of the Wachau need a lot of handiwork

As the terroir and climate typical for the Wachau – hot during the day with cool nights – are best for white wines, only whites are grown on the famous sites mainly situated on the typical stone terraces on the “Dürnsteiner Kellerberg”, namely Loibenberg, Loibner Kreutles and Loibner Burgstall. The biggest part naturally have Grüner Veltliner and Riesling which are matured into the Wachau categories Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd (link Wachau!!!), but the wonderfully aromatic Gelber Muskateller is great fun, too.

If the year is right, great, fragrant Sweet-Wines up to TBAs are made.

In the vineyard, Wolfgang Bäuerl focuses on the care of the vines and grapes which are allowed to ripen naturally and ecologically. “I pay attention to the forces of nature, and the phases of the moon, and I practice green manuring. I am aware that I am cultivating a piece of nature - in the wine cellar that piece of nature becomes a piece of culture”. That’s what he has to say about modern technical stuff: “as little as possible and as much as necessary”. The use of the controversially discussed concentrator and other modern cellar processes is not an issue.

Technology high above the Danube river: mobile phone and organizer help to meet the demands of the customers.

Quite an issue: the problems with cork. The Bäuerls were among the first in Austria to use screw caps for their best wines but they are still waiting for a wide acceptance and wish that some of the top winemakers would follow the same path. Especially with such small returns like those gained on the over 40 years old stone terraces, corkiness is extremely annoying, but affected bottles are replaced anytime.

Sweetheart from the monastery kitchen.

Waltraud in the vineyards

Back to Wolfgang’s hobby: graphics. It was at a calligraphy class in the Zwettl monastery where a padre pointed out to him the amazing manuscripts in the Franciscan monastery in Graz. This was where Waltraud was a cook at the time. She must have been such an excellent cook that soon after some shuttling he convinced her to move to the Wachau and marry him. Now she’s the guarantee for the strict quality check in the vineyards and a confident mother. She’s in charge of the and the perfect culinary service for the guests at tastings in the tidy house or the cosy garden behind the cellar. Right now the Bäuerls think of building a tasting room to provide up to 30 people with wine, good food and cultural events on the weekends.

The kids are life and soul of the party.

The son drives the tractor like a pro.

The family is the heart of everything. It wouldn’t be possible otherwise – the children are omnipresent. So the youngest of the family is scrambling over her mother or father during the wine tasting while the son shows how easy it is to reverse the tractor with verve and precision into the garage.

The daughter is climbing the high stone terraces.

An extension of the vinery is not an issue for the Bäuerls - only if they were offered excellent sites. Wolfgang Bäuerl: “The challenge is Loibenberg – and to extract more out of the wines in a way as natural as possible.”

If you want to get infected with the Bäuerls´ laughter and indulge in high quality: be fast, because it's never enough Bäuerl wine for all, who want to drink them.

Bäuerl Winery

A-3601 Oberloiben 28

T: +43/(0)2732/75555

F: +43/(0)2732/75555-4

E: vino@baeuerl.at

www.baeuerl.at