About Ebner Ebenauer
Winery History
Ebner-Ebenauer's roots are as deeply embedded in history as their old vines, centered around a 400-year-old winery. This journey began with Manfred Ebenauer, originally a marketing student, who took a detour from his intended career path, transitioning to the role of a winemaker under his father's guidance. As fate would have it, he crossed paths with Marion, a fellow wine management student who quickly became his life and business partner. Together, they've successfully grown the winery from its original seven hectares to its current span of 20 hectares, converting to organic farming along the way.
Viticulture/Winemaking Style
At Ebner-Ebenauer, the winemaking philosophy rests on patience and nature's guidance. Manfred leverages spontaneous fermentation, allowing the wines to evolve naturally, undisturbed. Their vineyards are home to vines of above-average age, some over 70 years old, contributing significantly to the complexity and depth of their wines. Each parcel of grapes is harvested by hand and vinified separately, ensuring the truest expression of each site. The winery's no-frills approach eliminates reliance on pumps and technical equipment, further reinforcing their dedication to authenticity and time-honoured tradition.
Ever since I visited the beautiful country of Austria this past spring I just can't get enough Grüner Veltliner. In the second half of May I had the privilege of spending nearly two weeks in the country, and along with visiting Vienna I toured Austria's greatest wine regions, including Burgenland, Carnuntum, and the Danubian subzones of Wachau, Kamptal, and Kremstal. Throughout the entire trip I was just blown away with how delicious and endlessly variable Grüner can be. This native Austrian grape is the ultimate chameleon. Depending on vine age and winemaking style, it can be crisp, refreshing, and easy-drinking like a Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc with delicate and savory watercress and white pepper notes, or it can be richly textured and dense like a Premier Cru Meursault with stony minerality and fleshy orchard fruit. On my trip we tried everything from fresh, young examples, to much older wines, and even some with lavish amounts of new oak, and I was endlessly excited to taste each one. The pinnacle of this visit was three days of tasting at Vie Vinum, which is Austria's largest wine showcase hosted inside the Imperial Hofburg Palace and is billed as 'the most elegant wine fair in the world." It was a veritable smorgasbord of Austrian wines, and among the hundreds of producers there the Grüners of Ebner-Ebenauer, a small family estate in the Weinviertel, particularly stood out for their unique and splendid expressions of Austria's most treasured indigenous grape.
Ebner-Ebenauer might be more of a newcomer to the Austrian wine scene when you consider that many estates have been around for decades, but they've made a huge splash in a short amount of time. Marion and Manfred Ebner-Ebenauer started their small estate in 2007 inspired by the hand crafted single vineyard wines of Burgundy and a desire to make incredible versions of Grüner Vetliner and other native Austrian grapes from the vineyards surrounding Manfred's hometown of Poysdorf in the Weinviertel north of Vienna. It didn't take long for them to take off, and Flagstaff, Austria and Germany's premier wine and food publication, awarded Marion and Manfred with their highly sought after Winemaker of the Year award in 2022. The couple now farms 20 acres across 38 vineyard sites to make an array of wines in their family's 400 year old cellar that could not be more authentically Austrian. Vineyard management is all done by hand to ensure they only use the best grapes from their very old vines (some nearly 80 years old), and all farming is organic and biodynamic, which is very important to all top-end Austrian winemakers. In the cellar, wines are made traditionally, with no new oak, ambient yeasts, and short amounts of light skin contact and extended lees aging to add extra texture and body to the resulting wines.
The Weinviertel, a large and relatively cold region situated north of the Danube and Vienna, is known for its lighter and peppery style of Grüner. The Ebner-Ebenauers have somehow managed to merge the deep complexity only found in great single vineyards with high quality loess soils with the crunchy, acid driven style of the region, and the result is downright delicious and shows the heights Grüner Veltliner can achieve. I've tasted every Grüner in their stateside lineup since we received our allocation, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I can't stop drinking them. A few bottles have come home with me for casual sipping many nights in the past few weeks, and I have found every one of them more enjoyable than the last. These are some of my favorite Grüners from Austria, and I truly can't recommend them enough. - KELLY RAU
100% Gruner Veltliner from the Steinberg/von den Luessen vineyard, which has vines more than 60 years old planted on gravel and loess soils from the primordial Danube. Grapes were hand harvested and sorted in October at Auslese ripeness, and after a period of brief skin contact the wine was fermented in used oak casks.
From the Winemakers: "A profound and seemingly ‘dark’ aroma of yellow fruits; ripe apples, melons, a bit of grapefruit and fresh herbs. Authoritative on the palate and full-bodied, with a prominent core of sweet fruit. Luxuriant with a delicate hint of tobacco. Rounded but very fresh from the acid interplay"
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