Christian Tschida is a captivating, deeply intellectual fellow who tends 10-hectares of old vines in Burgenland, in easternmost Austria. He is the fourth generation of his family to farm the land and he makes the most minimal of minimal intervention wines, often defying the genre. Christian does everything manually – picks and de-stems by hand, foot stomps, you get the idea – and extracts juice only with the help of a vertical basket press that exerts a gentle pressure. The wines have absolutely no additions whatsoever, and the slight oxidative handling renders them super fresh and occasionally there's a benign tickle of fizz in the odd wine.
These are wines of great purity and structure. They are obsessively precise and an absolute dream to drink. The whites, Laissez Faire and Himmel auf Erden Weiss, are evocative and complex examples of what Christian can do with riesling and lesser-sung indigenous grape varieties such as weissburgunder (pinot blanc in disguise) and scheurebe. But for this release, it's the reds that are really doing it for us (and what Christian is known for). Brutal!!!* is pinot noir that's wild and experimental, which forChristian means striking the perfect balance between depth, structure and wild-edged energy. It's a drink now kind of vibe. On the other side of the pinot noir coin is Stockkultur, which has depth, structure and vitality in spades. It's also super age-worthy so, if you can keep your mitts away, it'll only get better. Engel auf Erden Rot is yet another playful/serious riff on pink maceration that Christian does so well. It's kind of like Birdscape from a few vintages back. Is it a red, is it a rose? Who can say. But it does have an insanely good pop and lift of acidity. Last, but certainly not least is Felsen II, a fresh Rhone feeling syrah number.
Now, if it's not already clear enough, Christian's wines are sought after the world over and are such a huge vibe if you can get your hands on a bottle. So, if you want some better go get you some.
*Just a little reminder for those playing along at home. Brutal!!! is an open sourced label that indicates a wine/winemaker is part of the raw wine movement at its apex – zero inputs in farming, zero additions, zero sulphur, and often wines that provoke for their unique personalities. Brutal!!! wines have a reputation as being bizarre, unkindly so, these are just wines at their most unfettered, the concept born from a couple of winemaker friends who decided to label up wines that challenged the notion of what wine can and will be.
