Female producer? Tick. Hardcore biodynamic farming? Tick. Vastly underrated region? Tick. Indeed, there are so many reasons to get behind a winemaker like Judith Beck, who after internships in France and Chile started working at her family’s estate in Burgenland, Austria when she was only 21. Three years later, in 2004, she took over full stop and converted the 15-ish hectares to biodynamic viticulture in 2007. Talk about a wunderkind.
Her vines are sited on the eastern side of Lake Neusiedl – not only the warmest and flattest part of the country, but home to some remarkably diverse soil; loam, limestone, minerals and gravel might even show up in a single vineyard. Throw in herbal remedies, cultivated grasses between the rows and strict adherence to the lunar calendar, and what you get are wines that speak of place in the truest, purest sense.
You want a snapshot of classic Burgenland through a modern lens? Have a look at the ripper zweigelt and St. Laurent blend that is the 2022 Ink. True to its name, it’s a dark, gutsy thing of real complexity, charged with flavours of blackberries, dark cherries, sweet spice and cracked pepper. Plush tannins, bright acid, big points all around. The 2023 Out is a lighter creature, melding blaufränkisch and zweigelt to sappy, fresh-feeling and medium-bodied effect. Think mixed berry compote and plums with an undercurrent of liquorice, balsamic and graphite.
While reds are very much the calling card here, Beck’s skin-contact wines are every bit as intricate. Grüner veltliner and a clutch of other local whites make up the 2023 Koreaa, which spends three days on skins and drinks like a saline, tropical farmhouse cider. The 2022 Bambule Welschriesling, by contrast, finds welschriesling (not to be confused with riesling) in full bloom after 10 days of maceration: green apples and pears, lemon peels and pith, all underlined by gentle tannins and savoury hits of honeycomb and hay. More, please.