2022 Riesling Weisser Marmor Nussberg

Mayer am Pfarrplatz is a Vienna Institution. While its existence is documented in 1683 as a mixed farm, it may be older since previous records may well have been destroyed in one of the Turkish invasions. In the 1920s and 1930s, it specialized in wine and is one of Vienna’s most famous Heurigen inns – synonymous with Wiener Gemischter Satz, the local field blend. Until 2007, the estate was run by Franz Mayer, a legendary winemaker of the 1960s and 1970s. Mayer was ahead of his time and did much to cement the winery’s status in the city – but as he became older, he was overtaken by a new generation. Mayer sold the estate in 2006 to Hans Schmidt, an advertising executive, who had already bought the Rotes Haus in Nussdorf, also in the 19th district, with its 1.7 hectares of vineyard. Schmidt hired Gerhard Lobner, who has run the estate ever since, starting a huge modernization program and, above all, replanting. At the time of the sale, there were 26 hectares, and the coming decade saw the acquisition of numerous vineyards and the replanting of 30 hectares. The estate today farms 72 hectares of vineyards, almost all in Vienna’s 19th district, with 8 hectares in the 17th district – split into 63 hectares of Mayer am Pfarrplatz and 9 hectares for Rotes Haus, the latter exclusively on the Nussberg. The wines are still made separately – with Rotes haus made in a rounder, more mollient style while Mayer am Pfarrplatz is more linear. More than half of the plantings are Gemischter Satz, followed by Riesling, notable at this estate, Grüner Veltliner, but also Pinot Noir.