I remember so clearly my first visit to Gerhard and Brigitte in July 1998. We’d met a few weeks before , thanks to Josef Umathum’s introduction, and were looking, without much success, for a red wine to join our Riesling, Grüner Veltliner from Lower Austria. It was a rainy day and I had a thumping headache. Gerhard had recently been admitted into the Pannobile group, and at this time was still making wines in the cellar of the family home on the High Street of Gols. What struck me immediately, were the silky textures of his red wines. This aspect had been missing from all the other wines we’d looked at until that time, but Gerhard had ‘nailed it’ and I loved his St Laurent Alte Reben 1997. Moving forward over 20 years, and Gerhard and Brigitte are now well-known trailblazers, with a great international reputation. They have an amazing winery which seems to double as a Modern Art Gallery. What has not changed is their love of what they do, their modesty and their kindness in sharing this enthusiasm.
The estate now stretches over 20 hectares in Gols and nearby Weiden on the north east side of Lake Neusiedl. Despite Gerhard’s recent enthusiasm for skin and lees-contact white wine it is still essentially a red wine estate. Right from the start of his career, St Laurent has been the estate’s calling card, and he is one of very few producers to have championed this challenging grape variety and made success of it in both blends and as single vineyard wines. But Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch are important here too, as is Pinot Noir, and we sell all with equal enthusiasm.
