Rotgipfler Pfaffstätten, Lorenz Alphart, Thermenregion, Austria

Rotgipfler Pfaffstätten , Lorenz Alphart, dry white wine from Austria. This is an aromatic, special wine full of ripe tropical fruit: mango, peach, passion fruit, melon, kumquat. So a complex wine, chalky, spicy. Good balance, tension, special.

4.5/5 stars at Perswijn

• Serving: 12 °C
• Drink: now until 2028

Rotgipfler is - together with Zierfandler , which we also have - a unique, rare grape from the Thermenregion , south of Vienna. Gumpoldskirchen is the 'capital' of this special and small wine region. Thermenregion refers to the volcanic origin of the soils, with sulphurous springs. The Romans planted the first vines here.

Rotgipfler is - as far as is known - a natural cross between Roter Veltliner and Traminer/Savagnin . The leaf tips turn red in autumn.

Rotgipfler Pfaffstätten, Lorenz Alphart. Wine from young ambitious talent

Lorenz Alphart continues a family tradition that goes back to 1762. The winery is officially called Alphart am Muehlbach . Lorenz Alphart (30) is now in charge and farms 9 hectares around the village of Traiskirchen. He is making a splash with Rotgipfler, from his top vineyards Mandelhöh and Pressweingarten, and with Zierfandler.
Here he lets the unique terroir speak for itself - based on the motto 'Länge statt Breite': 'A fine, untouched salty and punishing, freshly burgundy, other with more tropical fruit and fresher Röstaromatik.' But this 'Ortswein' from Pfaffstätten also offers a lot of Trinkfluss! This gastronomic wine shows off both the character of Rotgipfler and the terroir.

Thermal region: the Côte d'Or of Austria

The area around Traiskirchen, where the Alphart family is based, is very similar to the Côte d'Or in Burgundy. Here too, the vineyards are sheltered by forests and on slopes facing south and southeast, warm summers and dry autumns, heavy and chalky soil, the perfect conditions for Chardonnay , among other things, planted here in the Middle Ages by Cistercian monks from... Burgundy.