Schmelzer: Roesler "Zauber des Verzichts" 2017

Viticulture also has to do with responsibility. This applies equally to winegrowers and consumers. The fact that, for example, 60% or, in other figures, 90000000 kilos of continental fungicides are used on Europe's vineyards, even though only 5% of agricultural land is planted with vines, should at least make us think. As organic farming currently only offers copper and sulphur preparations as answers, it is obvious that alternatives should be considered. These have been available for several decades in the form of fungus-resistant new varieties, so-called PIWIS, which are slowly but surely finding their way into the consciousness and consequently also into the vineyards of some winegrowers. 

Georg Schmelzer was one of the first in Austria to give a PIWI a chance when he planted Roesler in the mid-2000s. Roesler is a cross between Zweigelt and the French hybrid grape Seyve Villard 18-402 and, if you are not careful, produces deep, dark, highly alcoholic, extremely tannic wines without any finesse. 

However, Schmelzer proves that Roesler can also do things differently by offering the vines what their conception as PIWI actually suggests anyway. A biodiverse and lively environment in the vineyard and a vinification that above all practises renunciation and ultimately adds nothing and takes nothing away.