Grabenwerkstatt is Wachau like no other
I still pretty vividly remember my first experience with wines from Austria’s Wachau valley some 11 years ago. A couple of Smaragds from F.X. Pichler, one of the top names in the region, all coming from the very hot 2013 vintage. These rich, robust, oily powerhouse Grüners and Rieslings shaped my perception of Wachau long before I ever visited the valley or tasted more diversely. That Wachau is long gone. The past few years have seen a steady shift towards leaner wines. Try the F.X. of today and if you have memories like mine, you will be surprised.
While even the Smaragds, the highest designation on Vinea Wachau’s style ladder, are no longer as in-your-face as some time ago, Wachau is still home to rather opulent and, for lack of a better word, warm and welcoming wines. On that canvas, what Michael Linke and Franz Hofbauer are doing at the relatively young Grabenwerkstatt is like a jolt of electricity and excitement.
Wachau doesn’t see newcomers to the scene frequently. Coming up with a vineyard in one of the top spots is nothing short of impossible. Unless you’re not after a top spot at all, which is exactly what the guys did. The idea to make wine together crystallized when Michael Linke (coming from Palatinate) and Wachau-native Franz Mozer both worked at New Zealand’s Pyramid Valley (coincidentally, a producer I have a soft spot for). They started in the mid-2010s out of Franz’s parents’ garage in Trandorf — literally, not figuratively.
Their home, Spitzer Graben, is a narrow, twisting, and steep-sided valley west of Spitz — the farthest part of Wachau. The climate there is much cooler and harsher than along the Danube. Many steep, stony, terraced vineyards dotted along the valley can be worked only by hand. Franz and Michael marveled at exactly that. They set out to find vineyards deserving a new life. They rebuilt the old terraces and transitioned to biodynamic viticulture. Some plots they are now meticulously caring for have vines older than 70 years. In this exciting terroir, they work on just around 4 hectares, making tiny amounts of wines that vividly show their birthplace. Working as hands-off as possible, they pick with zero tolerance for botrytis, whole-bunch press, and spontaneously ferment the juice, aging the wines on the lees in steel tanks before bottling unfined and unfiltered. Asked about their wines, Michael says with a big smile: “we’re not really Wachau winemakers, we’re Spitzer Graben winemakers”.
The two entry-level Grüners from younger vines, Wachauwerk and Grabenwerk, are like two sides of the same coin. A brilliant introduction to their philosophy. Wachauwerk is their only wine coming from the warmer vineyards alongside the Danube towards the east of Wachau, whereas Grabenwerk comes exclusively from the cooler Spitzer Graben. The Wachauwerk is slender, delightful and immediately drinkable, whereas Grabenwerk is laser sharp, precise, with understated tension. There’s really nothing entry level about these wines with this level of finesse.
It’s the five single-vineyard wines, Schön & Brandstatt for Grüners and Bruck, Kalkofen and Trenning for Rieslings, where the truly serious game begins. Each has a story to tell, with no two cut from the same cloth.
Tasting together with Michael in Warsaw last week, the difference between Kalkofen — lower-located, stony, and markedly hot during the day — and Trenning, the highest and quite likely the harshest vineyard in the valley, couldn't be more stark. Slightly counterintuitively, Kalkofen was quite light-footed, tense, very directional, with razor-sharp acidity, while Trenning was broader, spicier, denser, almost salty. Both strike you with mouthwatering intensity, clearly defined fruit, depth and persistence.
These wines are as far as it gets from easy-going, fruit-forward crowd pleasers. They put your senses in overdrive and demand undivided attention, but are equally rewarding in return. With Grabenwerkstatt’s production volume, finding these wines can be no small feat, but I assure you — the thrill of experiencing Wachau like no other is worth seeking.
In Poland, the wines of Grabenwerkstatt are available through a Warsaw-based boutique importer Nowofalowi. I met Michael Linke in Warsaw at the Austrian producer tasting organized together by Nowofalowi and Enoterra at WIN winebar.