The Sleeping Giant
A vineyard site with many aspects. A marvellously picturesque location – and home even to red-grape varieties. Let’s visit Weitenberg, in the company of Weißenkirchen winegrowers Florian Mang and Gerald Zeiner.
South, southeast or southwest? At Weitenberg that is the question. The hill’s vineyards, above the town of Weißenkirchen, cover a respectable 25 hectares. Depending on the aspect, climate zones on the hill can vary considerably. Altitude is also factor, with 200 metres separating low-lying parcels and the uppermost. That translates into up to two weeks difference when it comes to the grape harvest. But 2024 was somewhat unique, with the grapes gathered in much earlier, as Florian Mang, from the Manghof estate, and Gerald Zeiner (Weingut Gattinger) tell us. Both work vineyards situated on Weitenberg. The hill has been home to the Gattinger family for generations. “My wife’s grandfather built many of the stone walls you see. They represent a chunk of his life-work,” Gerald Zeiner recalls.
After a career in handball he chose winegrowing as a profession. “What I like about it is living in step with the seasons – in some ways similar to professional sports.” As the year passes, the changing seasons are particularly felt on and around Weitenberg. “And that with an almost 360-degree panorama of the Wachau. From Weitenberg the view takes in Dürnstein, the Göttweig monastery and reaches almost as far as Spitz,” Florian Mang explains. After taking over his parent’s estate, the young vintner is currently in the midst of converting to organic cultivation. “On Weitenberg that’s both hard and easy. We get a lot of wind here, which makes protecting the vines challenging. But after it rains the grapes dry fast, so they’re less susceptible to diseases.”
Among varieties, Grüner Veltliner is the one with the highest yields on Weitenberg. “This grape does very well here, in deep soils and with irrigation,” Gerald Zeiner points out. Riesling also feels at home in certain sections of Weitenberg, as do some red-grape varieties. While Grüner Veltliner and Riesling are their mainstays, Florian Mang and Gerald Zeiner beam with pride when they mention their reds: “Full-blooded reds, not just red wines,” Gerald Zeiner, smirking, adds. Shiraz, Merlot, Pilot noir and Zweigelt: all thrive on Weitenberg.
Stone terraces running for countless kilometres along the slopes of Weitenberg ensure a consistently temperate climate. “The stone stores warmth on into the evenings, which obviously benefits the vines,” Florian Mang explains. But it’s the nearby forests to the north that are the secret of the exceptional fruitiness of the Weitenberg wines, the two tell us. “The road through the ravine is like a funnel piping the cool air down from the plateau above.” This effect, in tandem with exposure to ample sunlight, renders uniquely tense wines.
Anyone familiar with Weitenberg will have heard the term Minuten-Boden, literally ‘minute-soil’. “This is what we call the kind of earth that needs that special touch. With this soil you’ve got to be careful of the right moment when you work it – down to the very minute,” Gerald Zeiner jokes. Neither too wet nor too dry: that also goes for working the ‘minute-soil’. “Anyone could do it if it were easy... or at least that’s what we tell ourselves to make the hard work feel more pleasant,” Florian Mang adds with a laugh. At places along Weitenberg, the soil turns up boulders, some more than a metre thick: a variety of gneiss known as ‘Gföhl’.
“To us, Weitenberg as one of the Wachau’s greatest vineyard sites. Compared with, say, Achleiten, it’s no less steep or impressive,” the two agree. The steep slopes mean much of the work can only be done by hand. “We even hand-pick the grapes, but as members of Vinea Wachau that’s our principle anyway. Which won’t change in future.”
When visiting the Wachau, Weitenberg is best discovered on foot – over the hill from east to west. Or in the other direction. During the hike you not only pass by row on daintily curving row of vines but even two wine fridges.
For the vintners, working up here can also be an escape from daily routine. As they say: “Weitenberg is like a sleeping giant.” From whose shoulders you have a fantastic view of both the Wachau and the future of winegrowing.
