Estates
Ebner-Ebenauer
in Weinviertel DAC, Lower Austria, Austria
View our wines from Ebner-Ebenauer
Marion and Manfred
A young couple in the Weinviertel, Marion and Manfred—and a nice, even-tempered Labrador retriever named Mokka…
Poysdorf is the place where the Pfefferl grows, that magical intangible which causes GV to leap out of the glass rather than climb or slink—Weinviertel means ‘wine-quarter’ (as in Latin-quarter), and it’s just a coincidence that one quarter of the wine in Austria grows here. They call it Veltlinerland, and its wines range from rustic to downright regal.
And a neoclassical love-story—Manfred grew up here, deeply rooted in the generations which had previously worked the 10-hectare estate, while Marion was the enfant-terrible of the Austrian wine-scene—a protegée of the Viennese master Fritz Wieninger, she made quite a stir as negociante with her Melusine Grüner Veltliner—a barrique interpretation based on grapes grown on lyra-trained vines, which she bought from Michi Moosbrugger at Schloss Gobelsburg.
He deeply rooted, she quite well connected. He, quiet and thoughtful—she, exuberant and self-assured. Married in 2007 after years of courtship, they work the estate in tandem.
The Ebenauer family has farmed the vines here for many generations. Manfred’s grandparents cherished a great love for Italy and France—and after the winery burned to the ground in the mid-forties, it was rebuilt in the Mediterranean style.
And then there are the vines themselves—in contrast to the young winegrowers, their grapevines speak with the wisdom of age—many of them sixty years growing in the ground, in the vineyards Birthal, Bürsting, Sauberg—
the soils in the rolling hills round Poysdorf are comprised mainly of loam and löss, and range in texture from deep and dense to sandy and light. The vineyard Hermannsachern was first officially mentioned in 1338—a clay soil cleverly laced with fossil limestone upon a plateau, which continues to bring forth remarkable wines even after centuries of rough winters. Bürsting’s heavy loam provides the perfect basis for rich and succulent Grüner Veltliner.
and this estate has blessed us with a wine that we have christened ‘the Elite Liter.’
Ebner-Ebenauer Grüner Veltliner 2009 Liter bottle.
Produced from estate-grown fruit, seldom does this quantity come blessed with this level of quality. The citrus-side of the GV-flavor family tree, lime-zest on top of solid grapefruit (and somewhere some green apple) not to mention a whiff of honeysuckle—along with as much Pfefferl as the law will allow. Nicely mineral and vibrantly long.
Marion and Manfred say of their bottlings: “Our wines are unmanipulated, and need time to develop. They’re not flashy, but rather reserved and long-lived. Nature has written the screenplay—and we sit patiently in the director’s chair.”
As if to bend the bounds of credibility (doing recently another tasting in Vienna for the ÖGZ, the Austrian gastronomy digest)—I flew to Munich on the 2th of Sept, returned on the 12nd—the 09er EE Liter I left half-full in the fridge upon departure was still way-more than half-delicious upon my tendays-later return.
Wines by Ebner-Ebenauer
