Our New Obsession: Van Der Vogelwaide

08/02/24
I love seeing what top producers abroad are drinking on their home turf. It’s usually a fun sneak peek into what’s exciting locally before the rest of the industry knows.
The best example of powerful producer-driven intel is probably the ‘Golden Era’ list made by the iconic Klaus Peter Keller: a list of young growers he was excited about, in hopes of shedding light on new producers during COVID. The list, and its producers, went truly viral in the wine world.
This past Spring over dinner at Esslokal with the exceptionally talented Alwin and Stefanie Jurtschitsch, they clued me in about a producer they’re drinking: Von Der Vogelwaide. We pulled a cork and I instantly needed to know more; I’ve not had wines like these from Wachau.
This brand new duo is making magic with wines that reflect their love for (and pedigree with) Burgundy while honoring Wachau's most hallowed ground.
A few years in to their game-changing work, Daniel Vogelwaid and Michael Donabaum are the names behind Von Der Vogelwaide. Michael is a local son of Wachau, with a family who’s tended vines here for generations; he studied viticulture (and design!) in Krems before returning home. His other half, Daniel, grew up in Germany and has a jaw dropping resume, including time at Comte Lafon, Château Palmer and Jean-Louis Chave.
  
The wines honor a historical understanding of Wachau’s thick loess-over-hard-slate soils with a world class sensibility in the cellar.
Daniel and Michael 📷 via @vondervogelwaide
 
Their first vines came from a steep parcel in Schön, which quickly grew to 2.5 hectares farmed by hand and biodynamically. Now their parcels are spread throughout Wachau, on both sides of the Danube; primarily on (very) steep slopes where the vines are trained on individual posts – not easy work. Especially when you realize they’re picking out and removing any botrytized fruit, which is pervasive in the area and historically makes its way to the region's final wines.
Hand harvesting in Wachau 📷 via @vondervogelwaide
  
In the cellar, you really start to see the light between their wines and what else is in the area. All of the wines below are exclusively whole cluster pressed without maceration (there is one exception) – they generally don't feel the skins add anything to their intended style.
 
With a serious nod to Burgundy, they like to let the juice brown after pressing. Fermentation is in neutral French oak (the top wines are all in old wood, some steel in the entry-level) with aging continuing in a neutral wood on its gross lees to protect the wine (and require as little SO2 as possible). Malolactic occurs spontaneously, if it does occur. If this reads like a tech sheet for Comtes Lafon, you wouldn’t be wrong – the wines are treated very similarly.
It's a project which reflects some of our favorite new finds over the last 10 years – Wasenhaus, Luis Seabra, Jonas Dostert – with a clear allegory to Burgundy; highlighting the flavors of Wachau's native varietals and soils with the texture and tension I expect from places called Chassagne or Puligny.
The result is a truly border-blurring lineup, from ultra polished, Burgundian single vineyard Riesling and Grüner Veltliner (the showstopping dinner wine above); to a Rhône inspired white from Austrian varietals.
 
Outside of the estate bottlings, there are two partial négoce cuvées: a (relatively) easygoing Austrian blend which retains their elegant style, and a flex to savory orange – the least expensive bottle in the lineup, it's the only macerated wine and has a different but delicious charm.