Styria, Austria

Based on the ‘Kittenberg’ within the Southern Styrian ‘Sausal’ valley, Herbert König alongside his brother Karl- Heinz and their mother Anni are on a mission to re-establish their century old family project — Wachstum König — which started by their grandfather, an orchard fruit pioneer, Friedrich König. For decades they were running a mixed agricultural farm comprised of fruit trees, vines and animals. Their father, Herbert Senior, took over the running of the estate and shifted focus onto the vineyards and fruit fields. After he tragically died in a vineyard accident in the 1990s, the farm was in the hands of mother Anni who took great care and diligence to preserve the heritage and knowledge of the past generation.

Before returning to the family farm, both Herbert and Karl-Heinz acquired a rich resume of experience. While Herbert studied a degree in viticulture, he cut his teeth with one of Styria’s largest and most historic wineries. Karl-Heinz’ learning focused more on the aspects of general agriculture and in particular fruit growing which led him to pursue a masters degree at ‘Silberberg’ college where he works full-time to this day.

Along with their range of single vineyard expression wines, we were blown away by their phenomenal, low intervention fruit juices, which are neither pasteurised, filtered or sulphured, and are made from old heritage varieties of pear, quince and cherry. The complexity, phenolic structure and acidity profile is something we think compares with serious terroir- driven wines — a first to us and we think a new dimension for the context of non-alcoholic pairings.

Their approach to winemaking is unlike any others as they are focusing on tannins and texture. So far, they are exclusively growing white grapes, such as Sauvignon Blanc, Weissburgurder and Morillon and Welschriesling and will later this year release their first light red made from Blauer Wildbacher.