„Our wines tell the story of our homeland, the soil, the weather and the labour of an entire year. Honest and unadulterated, they reflect their provenance and touch our hearts anew, year after year.”
Maria & Josef Maier
1988
conversion to organic farming
>5000
hours of work in
the vineyard per year
>13%
nature conservation areas
1072
first documented
mention of the farm
The history of the old estate began almost 1000 years ago, in the little village of Oberfucha in Kremstal, Lower Austria. Here, winemaking has been part of our family’s life for more than 14 generations, an occupation deeply rooted in the landscape. Today, as well as in the past, arable land, hedgerows, cattle, draft horses, chickens and bees complete our idea of holistic farming. Diversity instead of monoculture. The vine as a smaller part of a larger whole.

Organic viticulture

Only by giving nature a place in and around the vineyard we are able to receive back the best nature has to offer. Since 1988, the 23 ha of vines and 27 ha of arable land have been farmed according to organic principles. (see wildwux).
» ORGANIC - much more than just avoiding chemicals «
Over 13% of our land consist of hedges and nature conservation areas. Diverse cover crops with numerous wild herbs offer an additional habitat for a multitude of useful insects in our vineyards. The ecological interplay renders the use of insecticides unnecessary, reinforces the resilience of the vines and promotes healthy soil life.

Manual labor

Our team spends over 5000 hours pruning, trellising and working on the root stocks and canopies. Exclusive hand-harvesting is for us and our staff the highlight of an intense viticultural year.

The courage to harvest late is rewarded year after year with phenolically fully ripe fruit, which in combination with low yields, lends the wines complexity, concentration and depth.

Cellar

In the cellar, our main goal is to safeguard the level of quality created in the vineyard and to maintain the individuality of the wines through our purposeful “low-intervention” approach. Our actions in the cellar are therefore determined by a respect for the origins of our craft.
Staying well clear of "magical" enzymes, fining agents and specially cultured yeasts, we try to make do with the absolute minimum of interventions and technology. Top wines are made in the vineyard, there is nothing one can add in the cellar. The hygienic advantages of modern cellar technology in the form of stainless steel tanks, steam cleaners and renewable energy from solar panels are of course part of our approach – we don’t want to go back to the 19th century.

Our style of wine

Ostentatious, loud and opulent wines have never been our thing. The quality of our wines lies in their individuality and longevity. In times of regulations, laws and market pressure, they can and should reflect the characteristics of the soil, the grape variety and the vintage. Sometimes rough and complex, at other times light and carefree: as variable as the years, life and people themselves.
THE TIME
FACTOR
While the world seems to be getting ever louder and faster, peace and quiet returns to our old cellar walls. The wines are left to determine their own rhythm. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes many years before a wine finds its optimal maturity. Apart from our Grüner Veltliner Gutsreserve, our Erste Lage wines, which are only released after 2 years, are also good examples of this.
Since 1947, we have been storing our best wines from each vintage in our vinotheque in the approximately 900-year-old vaulted cellar. As witnesses of the times they tell many stories about the people, the weather and the art of winemaking, enabling us to draw conclusions for future decisions.
FACTOR
to the overview of wines

NEWS

  • Geyerhof Redesign got the German Design Award in the category “special mention”
  • For our efforts of the integration of nature conservation measurements into agricultural lands we won an Austrian sustainability award in 2019. This award honoured outstanding initiatives which highly contribute to the achievement of the 17 SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) of the United Nations.

 

Renaissance des Appellations Österreichische Traditionsweingüter AT-BIO 302 100% Handlese

Follow us

Weingut Geyerhof
Familie Maier
Ortsstraße 1
3511 Oberfucha/Furth
T: +43 2739 22 59
info@geyerhof.at