Koppitsch, Ret

Koppitsch, Ret

Type	Red
Country	Austria
Region	Burgenland
Varietal	Zweigelt, St. Laurent
Vintage	2021
ABV	11%
Size	750ml
Colour	Dark dark purple
Taste	Light bodied fresh red. Bramble and cherry flavours with grassy tones, hint of spice and light tannins
Food Pairing	Pizza Maple Smoked Duck Breast

 

Alexander and Maria Koppitsch began making wine in Burgenland in 2011. They took over their parents 5.5 hectare winery and moved from selling their grapes into making their own wine. The vineyards are in the Neusiedl am See, a small village situated at the shores of the Neusidl Lake and a the eastern end of the Leitha Mountains which feature soft, rolling hills of mostly limestone soil.

Like his father and grandfather before him, Alex does not believe in introducing any additives into the grapes or the wine. They use Rudolf Steiner’s biodynamic principles to cultivate their grapes, and pride themselves on performing every aspect of the vineyard management and the winemaking by hand, on a very small scale.

They make two distinct lines of wine, the Authentisch wines, which are more forthright and easy to drink, and receive a light filtering and a small addition of sulfur, as well as the more complex wines in the Unfiltered line, which take longer to ferment and have zero addition of sulfur.

Rét translates from Hungarian as grassland or field, since the land where these grapes grow used to be a pasture for feeding the livestock of the village.

Vineyard: Hutweide and Prädium plots on top of the Wagram-Plateau. Mostly sandy soil underneath a very thick layer of gravel, alluvial soil from the ancient Danube river. Healthy but poor and very dry and early-ripening. Planted 1988 – 2002, a total surface of 1.86 hectares.  

Grapes: roughly 80% Rotburger (Zweigelt), 20% St. Laurent

Making of: The grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed, and fermented naturally on skins for 6 days. Pressed into stainless steel (Zweigelt + St.Laurent) and large acacia vats (Zweigelt), where they matured on gross lees for 9 months without any additives, without fining, and without filtration, or temperature control. Blended together shortly before bottling. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, no SO2 addition since the 2020 vintage.

Personality: a joyful celebration of Austrian red varietals and bright light style of red wines – fruity and spicy with great drinkability.