2021 Weissburgunder Der Vollmondwein

The Christ family has been local to Jedlersdorf in Vienna for the past 400 years, working on their mixed farm. In the 1980s, Franz and Johanna Christ decided to specialize in wine only and focus on the 1959-founded Heurigen Inn, where they sold their wines. Their son Rainer Christ joined his home estate for the 2000 vintage and took over in 2006 after studying at Klosterneuburg and training in St. Émilion, Tuscany and Sonoma. Today, he farms 25 hectares, exclusively on the alluvial and limestone soils of the Bisamberg. Gemischter Satz is his most important planting, with 55% of vineyards, followed by Grüner Veltliner, Weissburgunder and Riesling with smaller areas of Muskateller, Sauvignon Blanc and Traminer as well as Zweigelt, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir. The diversity of the sites explains this wide varietal spectrum. Christ notes that while Bisamberg is Vienna’s largest contiguous vineyard, it is also the capital’s most biodiverse area with 30% of its surface dedicated to forests, meadows and waterways. As of 2015, Christ stopped grubbing up vineyards and now only replaces missing vines in an ongoing process of renewal to help him benefit from the established rootzones of the older vines, the associated lower yields and resilience to water stress, as all vineyards are dry farmed. Christ notes that drought brought a vegetative slowdown in August 2022, but this allowed longer hang-time and much ripeness at still moderate alcohol levels. Rainer Christ is a thoughtful, experimentative winemaker – his red wines XXI and the Pinot Kastanienwald, for instance, are polar opposites stylistically – showing his mastery. What is more important, though, is his intuitive approach, his perceptive attention to detail and the utter purity and translucency of his wines – which age beautifully.