Weingut Tement

The Free Bacchus Story

Tement began converting to organics in 2005 and did not take the Demeter certificate until 2022. Seventeen years is a long time to farm to a standard without collecting the paperwork for it, and it is the sort of gap that tells you the farming came first.

The estate works about eighty hectares at Ehrenhausen in South Styria, with a further twenty over the border in Slovenia at Domaine Ciringa. Manfred Tement built its reputation; his sons Armin and Stefan run it now, with Armin's wife Monika. It joined respekt-BIODYN in 2022, the same year the Demeter certificate came through.

South Styria has a second white worth knowing, and it hides behind a local name: Morillon is simply what Styrians call Chardonnay. On hills this steep and this cool it arrives taut and citrus-edged rather than broad and buttery, which tends to catch out anyone whose idea of the grape was formed somewhere warmer. Both of the region's whites are built with enough acidity to hold for years, so a bottle bought now is not a bottle that has to be drunk now.

Very little of that reaches the label, which is why this is a region that repays asking before buying rather than reading.

The certification here is unusually well documented for a new listing: organic conversion in 2005, Demeter in 2022, respekt-BIODYN membership the same year, all published by the association itself. A flagship bottling and a price are not recorded yet.