More about Weingut Schodl

Frühstückswein, Bloody Muskat, Safari: the labels tell you the Schödl siblings don't take themselves too seriously. The farming is another matter entirely.

Mathias, Viktoria and Leonhard Schödl took over their parents' estate in Loidesthal, a small village in Austria's Weinviertel, the broad, rolling wine country north of Vienna. For years the family made wine mainly for itself and the local community. Their father, Herbert, already farmed close to organically and taught oenology at Vienna's University of Natural Resources. The siblings studied too, then worked in cellars in New Zealand, South Africa, California and New York before coming home. They began converting to organic farming in 2016, were fully certified by 2019, and have since joined respekt-BIODYN, Austria's association of biodynamic growers.

Sheep graze between the rows, herbs and cover crops feed the soil and the insects, compost is the only fertilizer, the vines are not irrigated, and everything is picked by hand. In the cellar, fermentations run on native yeasts and the sparkling wines are riddled by hand and bottled with no dosage.

The range takes in Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Weissburgunder, Welschriesling, Muskateller, St. Laurent, Zweigelt and Pinot Noir, as still wines, pét-nats, gentle skin-contact whites and Sekt. These are bright, honest, unfussy wines with a natural-wine heart, made to be opened without ceremony.