Weingut Hirsch, 1ÖTW “Ried Heiligenstein” Riesling

The wine regions along the Danube west of Vienna—Wachau, Kremstal, Kamptal—are incredibly rich in history, and the architecture and landscape haven’t changed a whole lot over the centuries. Visiting places like the Kamptal really feels like going back in time; Johannes Hirsch lives in a house that was constructed “when Albrecht Dürer created his famous ‘Rhinoceros’ woodcut and Michelangelo was at work on his frescoes in Rome’s Sistine Chapel.” The Hirsch family acquired the property in 1878, and it remained a mixed-use farm until the 1970s, when Johannes’ father, Josef, began focusing more intently on viticulture. Over the years, Josef—joined by Johannes in the mid-1990s—pieced together more vineyard land en route to the estate’s current dimensions.   Johannes Hirsch runs his family estate with a deep respect for its centuries-old history, farming his vineyards according to rigorous biodynamic principles and producing single-vineyard wines from some of the best sites in Austria’s pict