Claus Preisinger, "Ancestral Pét-Nat" 2018

This is Claus’s pink sparkler, his fizzy take on St. Laurent that lifts the grape into something ethereal. A gorgeous summer wine, especially.

Vinification: 100% St. Laurent grapes hand-harvested from several vineyards on the slopes of the Leitha Hills. These are younger vines — 11-21 years-old — grown in gravel and limestone. Spontaneous fermentation with only native yeasts occurs in used 500L oak barrels where malolactic fermentation also happens, though the wine is bottled without 100% complete fermentation as is typical of the Ancestral Method, fermentation's byproduct (CO2) captured under crown-cap. Unfined, unfiltered, with no additional SO2. <11%ABV

Producer Spotlight
Lake Neusiedl, a 20-mile long pool of freshwater never deeper than a meter, is the central topographical feature of Burgenland where Claus Preisinger has been making biodynamic wines for nearly two decades, increasing output and quality with seemingly every vintage. This is an area comparable to Bordeaux’s Médoc, with its mild Pannonian climate, and the Leitha Hills not far from marshland. Historically, some of Austria’s greatest reds and sweet wines have been made here. Landing on our shelves are the much-loved cuvées: Puszta Libre! (Puszta=Plains - a reference to the land that extends east into Hungary), Kalkundkiesel, named for the relevant grapes’ soils (Kalk=limestone, Kiesel=Gravel), and finally, his pét-nat rosé Ancestral.