Birgit Braunstein

To see a photograph of Birgit Braunstein's vineyards is to understand her wines and her philosophy. They are edenic, bursting with flora and fauna.

Balance, balance, balance. This is the watchword at Weingut Braunstein. Birgit's vineyards are balanced between the warm winds of the Lake Neusiedl and the cool breezes off the Leithaberg mountains. Her soils are a complex balance of juxtaposing minerals: rich in both cooling and calcium rich sedimentary rocks like limestone intermingled with warming and potassium rich metamorphic minerals like gneiss. Birgit herself is a practitioner of qigong—you can't help but feel like all this practice in balance also shows up in the glass.

We first met Birgit at RAW fest in London and were instantly taken by the purity and frankness of her wines. So were not surprised to learn that Birgit’s winemaking family tradition stretches back to 1632, tending 22 hectares of vines on the Western shores of Lake Neusiedl in the Burgenland, a cradle for natural wine.

Since 2008, Birgit has also been assisted by Adriana Gonzalez, the only female cellar master in the Burgenland. All of their wines are naturally fermented and bottled unfined and unfiltered with minimal sulphur additions.

These wines are some of the most faithful, reliable, and enduring in our portfolio. They are resolutely amenable on the dinner table, pairing broadly with a range of dishes, a godsend for restaurants. Their consistency belies their minimal intervention farming and winemaking and their price point belies their quality. They never fail to impress, quiet and unassuming at first, but always growing on you with each sip.

If you want to know more about the characteristics of this area you can take a look at www.vinerra.com