KOPPITSCH GOES SOIL
Meet Maria & Alex Koppitsch. Their family’s 6 hectares is spread over four sites. The farming is organic and biodynamic. The ancient family soils consist of sand, clay, gravel, loam, limestone & schist. They are our friends and the reason we import natural wine.
Burgenland, Austria
The Koppitsch family has been growing grapes for hundreds of years. Alexander and Maria took over their parent’s 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 on the eastern end of the Leitha Mountains which feature soft, rolling hills of 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 are incredibly conscious of their carbon footprint and are always looking for ways to minimize their environmental impact, including using boxes that don’t require tape, lightweight glass bottles, single labels on the bottles to reduce their plastic consumption, and natural FSC-certified corks from Portugual. All of their wines are unfined, unfiltered, fermented with wild yeasts and without any temperature control in the winery.
~2022 HOMOK~
Hungarian for “sand”. Only Grapes that grow in the sandy soils of the vineyard Seefeld. 40% Grüner Veltliner, 40% Weissburgunder and the remaining Sauvignon Blanc.
Whole bunches go straight into the screw press. no additives or temperature control. The pressed juice goess straight into stainless steel + large acacia + oak barrels. All vats racked before natural fermentation kicks in. All 3 components co-ferment. Everything matured on gross lees for 6-7 months without any additives. Blended together shortly before bottling without any additives. Unfiltered.
HOMOK 6 x 750ml | SKU #191516 | $27.16
~2022 ROSZA-
Rosza means “pink” in Hungarian. Grapes are hand harvested and whole bunches go into the screw press. The wine ferments without additives and without temperature control in fiberglass and stainless steel tanks. All 5 grapes are co-fermented and the wine matures on the gross lees for about 6 months. It is bottled unfined, unfiltered, and with an addition of 15 milligrams of sulfur. 40% Zweigelt, 40% Blaufrankisch, 10% St. Laurent, 5% Pinot Noir, 5% Syrah.
2021 Rosza is bottled with a crown cap because it can be slightly spritzy
ROSZA 6 x 750mL | SKU #191508 | $27.16
~2022 RET ~
Rotburger & St.Laurent are hand-harvested and fermented on the skins for about 6 days without temperature control. After pressing, Rotburger & St. Laurent are put into stainless steel tanks, while some Rotburger also goes into large acacia barrels. Elevage lasted for 7 months, the wines were then blended shortly before bottling.
Ret 6 x 750mL | SKU #191513 | $27.16
MAGNUMS 3 x 1.5L | SKU #11740 | $50.22
~2021 PRETTY NUTS PÉT NAT ~
Blaufrankish and Syrah are hand-harvested and whole bunches go into the screw press. The juice is placed into fiberglass tanks to settle, and is racked once prior to fermentation kicking in. At the right time during fermentation, everyone in the family helps out to bottle the wines by hand. The wines are then stored until January, when they’re put outside for a couple of days to cool before Alex disgorges each bottle by hand. 50% Blaufrankisch/ 50% Syrah.
PRETTY NUTS PET NAT 6 x 750ML | SKU #191500 | $31.72
~2022 TOUCH~
50% Gemischter Satz from the clay soils of their Schafbuhl vineyard, and 50% Welschriesling grown in the limestone soils of their Neuberg vineyard. Approximately 30% of the grapes were left in whole bunches, while the rest were destemmed, and everything macerated together in open-topped vats for 4 days. Pressed off and blended into small oak barrels for 10 months of elevage before bottling.
The Gemischter Satz plot is very old, planted in the 1930s, with Grüner Veltliner, Brauner Veltliner, Weissburgunder, Welschriesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Traminer, Muscaat, Neuburger, and other unknown varieties growing together.
touch 6 x 750mL | SKU #54525 | $32.87
~2020 PERSPEKTIVE WEISS ~
50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Blanc
3/4 of the grapes were direct press, straight into 225L barriques, while the rest fermented on skins for 8 days before being pressed into barrel. The wines aged on gross lees for 10 months, with occasional battonage. Blended together 1 day before bottling.
Perspektive weiss 6 x 750ML | SKU #54519 | $32.87
~2020 PERESPEKTIVE ROT~
70% Blaufrankisch & 30% St.Laurent. The grapes were partially destemmed (approx. 10% stems in the mash) and fermented naturally in stainless steel and fiberglass vats. After 10 days the mash was pressed and pumped into 225L barriques. Elevage lasted 22 months, then the barrels were blended together 1 day before bottling.
Perspektive Rot 6 x 750ML | SKU #54522 | $32.87
~2018 AEON WHITE~
Old vines Gruner Veltliner and Welschriesling from the sandy soils of their Seefeld vineyard. Half of the grapes are directly pressed, while the other half are kept on their skins for 2 weeks. Fermented and aged in neutral barriques, the wine matured on gross lees for 18 months. Bottled on March 25th 2020, just before the full moon.
The Koppitsch family has been making wine for hundreds of years, and the grapes for this wine comes from select parcels of land which have been handed down for generations.