HP Harrer: Ton, Steine, Reben - Blaufränkisch 2017

HP Harrer's small winery in Neusiedl and Silvio Messana's Azienda Montesecondo in San Casciano may be a good 1000 kilometres of motorway and a national border apart, but otherwise there are a lot of parallels. Both have been cultivating their vineyards biodynamically for many years and both have their most important vineyard on a gently sloping limestone site.

In addition, both make excellent wines from different grape varieties, but have focussed primarily on the interpretation of a very specific variety, which in Silvio Messana's case is Sangiovese, while HP Harrer tries year after year to reveal the quintessence of his Blaufränkisch grapes.

He has recently started using clay containers - as Silvio Messana does with his brilliant TÏN - which he (like S.M.) sources from the Italian terracotta capital of Impruneta. The handmade amphora holds 350 litres, into which HP shovels his grapes together with the stems, then closes it and lets things take their course for the next 8 months (spontaneous fermentation, malolactic fermentation, development of complex aromatic compounds). He then carefully draws off the wine and bottles it unfined und unfiltered.