Weninger

Weninger is in Horitschon, in Mittelburgenland, the inland Austrian heartland of Blaufränkisch. The family is first recorded at Florianigasse 11 in 1828, but the modern quality estate begins with Franz Ludwig Weninger (Sr.), who took over in 1982 with seven hectares and produced the Kabinett Blaufränkisch 1983 that first put the appellation on the international map - he once compared the top sites at Hochäcker, Kirchholz and Dürrau to Pomerol, which tells you a lot about the early aesthetic.

His son Franz Reinhard Weninger (Jr., born 1979, trained at Klosterneuburg) took over formally in 2011. The style shift is real: Sr.'s wines were riper, more international, generous with new oak; Jr. has pulled the estate toward whole-cluster, elegant-frame reds aged in large neutral wood, concrete eggs and amphorae, with spontaneous fermentation and low SO2. Organic conversion began in 2005; the estate joined respekt-BIODYN in 2009 and added full Demeter certification in 2016.

Around 28 hectares in Horitschon and another 22 across the border in Balf, in the Hungarian Sopron region - the same grape (Kékfrankos / Blaufränkisch) but a different geology: gneiss and mica schist at the Spern Steiner parcel, loam with lime and humus at Frettner, versus the loams of the Austrian side. Franz Jr. runs the Hungarian project with his wife Petra Gratzer-Weninger, with a Balf cellar that was designed in 2004 and opened in 2006.

The red range is Blaufränkisch-led: single-vineyard Hochäcker, Kirchholz and Dürrau in Austria; Spern Steiner and Frettner in Hungary. Also Zweigelt, Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Syrah, and a little Furmint on the Hungarian side.