Gunther was in his youth a rock guitarist in love with wines. He traveled through Europe in search of Bacchus’ good nectars, like a true Goliardo. In 2001, he bought 23 ha of vineyards in Burgenland, in the villages of Rust and Morbisch-am-See, on the left bank of Lake Neusiedl with more limestone and stony soils than on the right bank, a few kilometers from the border with Hungary. When we visited him, Gunther was impenetrable at first, with a natural shortage of words and accentuated by not finding a common language to speak. We quickly called him Jerónimo, the last of the Mohicans. That afternoon in late August, a humid, hot and muggy climate prevailed when visiting the vineyards. The silence of the communication highlighted the admiration of the vineyards with a free and vigorous spirit, on slopes overlooking the lake, full of life: insects, flowers, herbs. Yields are low (25 hl / ha) and viticulture worships the preservation of the natural environment and reconstitution within the biodiversity vineyard, with a live soil to be able to produce healthy grapes that do not need adjuvant in the cellar: delicate press, filtration without shock, unglued wines, aging in barrels except for whites with a fruity vocation. When we sat down to taste the wines, her daughter asked how many we could taste. Gunther makes 20 wines a year and can make a vertical of each one. As the tasting progresses, we start yielding to the quality of the wines. Precise, complex, very varied, with a panoply of whites, reds and late harvests of high quality. The wines said it all. And we were eager to learn German!
Schönberger
Gunther Schönberger
Burgenland
