Situated in the small Austrian village of Neusiedl am See, on the northeastern corner of the wide, shallow lake by the same name – the Neusiedl – our friends Maria and Alex Koppitsch live, working vines and producing wines under their eponymous label. Alex’ family has been in this town for several centuries: he has an ancestor Koppitsch marked in the medieval chronicle of the town in 1523; this ancestor also happened to be the mayor and a winemaker. Imagine living in your hometown after your people had been there for 500 years and inheriting the same craft! – it gives one a sense of the scope of meaning possible for these small growers living in this historical green and reedy locale.
Maria and Alex are young powerhouses—parents of three children, having operated the Koppitsch winery for a decade now. The duo took over around six hectares of vineyards from Alex’ family in 2011; his grandfather never treated the vines with any chemicals at all, so moving into natural wine production was easier for the two of them than it can be for young producers elsewhere. (Alex claims the lack of chemical intervention is because his grandpa was grumpy and frugal and the chemicals were expensive, which all people who have older farmer relatives will understand.) Now, the two practice biodynamic farming principles in their vineyards; fermentations in the cellar are all with native yeasts; no chemical fining or filtration happens to the wines, and the application of the common winemaking preservative sulfur dioxide has been eliminated.
All of these practices would be reason enough to sit up and pay attention to this young couple in Burgenland, but there’s more to the Koppitsch project than just the practices: Maria mentions that with the colorful, playful design of the labels, and the bright character of the wines themselves, that the couple’s goal is to produce wines that bring people joy. Pleasure and happiness are the end goals, and all of the hand labor and painstaking devotion to the vineyards is in the interest of that pursuit. You feel it when you sit at Maria and Alex’ table to taste wines with them: no fancy tasting room, no high-end catering; they are the main employees; their sons play Nintendo Switch in the next room. But when you open the bottles themselves, there’s more than humility and happiness at play: layered, soft, glowing wines that greet the drinker with open hands and invite close attention. If you do pay close attention to these bottles, you’ll be rewarded with complexity that the labels—and their thoughtful makers—don’t necessarily advertise.
We’ve got three cuvées from Alex and Maria in stock right now, so if the sound of this kind and hardworking duo strikes a chord, be sure to swing by and grab them while you can. We’re particular fans of the ‘Touch,’ a stirring white blend that includes one field-blend vineyard, or a site that’s been co-planted to multiple Austrian native white grape varieties, hailing all the way from 1934. (!) Snag these fabulous wines from gentle Lake Neusiedl while you can!
FEATURED PRODUCTS:
Koppitsch Weiss 'Perspektive' 2020
SHOP THE COLLECTION: Alexander & Maria Koppitsch
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