Weingut Diwald

The Free Bacchus Story

Hans Diwald and his wife converted the family’s vineyards in Grossriedenthal to organic farming in 1976, long before it was fashionable, and the family counts them among the pioneers of organic winegrowing in Austria. Martin and his wife Ulli run the estate now. In 2023 they joined respekt-BIODYN and began farming biodynamically.

The Wagram is a long terrace of loess, soft wind-blown silt, above the Danube west of Vienna, and it is Grüner Veltliner country. Grüner Veltliner is Austria’s own white grape, and on loess it comes out rounder and broader, with the white pepper the variety is known for right at the front. Two of the Diwalds’ sites, the Goldberg and the Eisenhut, are classified as first growths by the Austrian Traditionsweingüter.

Sheep live in the vineyards all year and keep the grass down, and the family spreads its own compost. Some of the birds that nest around the vines, the bee-eater, the hoopoe and the little owl, are drawn on the labels. The Goldberg Grüner Veltliner is picked by hand, pressed as whole bunches, fermented with its own yeasts and aged 20 months on its lees before it is sold, two years after harvest.

One thing to be exact about. respekt-BIODYN, the association that certifies biodynamic farming, lists the Diwalds as members. On the EU organic register their certificate covers the vineyards, not the making of the wine, so the grapes are certified organic and the wine itself is not certified organic.