I first encountered wine from Weingut Ploder Rosenberg while visiting Mochi restaurant in Vienna. That introduction came in the form of a glass of Cara (65% bronner, 25% souvignier gris, 10% pinot blanc), and ever since chatting with the sommelier, I knew I wanted to talk with the people behind the bottle.
The vineyard and winery is located on about 30 acres in St. Peter am Ottersbach in the Steiermark, Austria’s southernmost wine region. It’s there, about an hour drive southeast of the regional capital, Graz, where it produces wines from interspecific hybrids — or PIWIs — including bronner and souvignier gris.
In 1986, Aldred and Maria Ploder took over day-to-day operations of their family-owned estate. The land at the time was used to grow apples, pears, plums, cherries, red currants, and even some tobacco, in addition to wine grapes. The couple decided, though, to focus their attention fully on wine.
Since 2011, the vineyard has been run by their son, Manuel, and his life partner, Selina Weratschnig, with some help from his parents. Together, they’re continuing a life-long learning process of figuring out how to make exceptional PIWI wines in their region. That process has been ongoing for the last 20 years, and was first launched in a bid to get closer to nature.
“It was not a single decision, [Aldred and Maria] were on a journey to discover how to make their farming more sustainable — without pesticides, without chemicals, without heavy interventions in the vineyard,” Weratschnig said. “They started to look for alternative ways to farm the land around 2000. At the time, a lot of change was happening in their minds, and they wanted to be more connected with nature again.”
In their quest to make this vision a reality, the pair journeyed to France to visit winemakers they knew had different approaches to winemaking. This is when they first came into contact with the biodynamic movement. Not long after, they came into contact with less-traditional grape varieties that fare well in the Steiermark’s humid climate. For Aldred, this was “mind-blowing,” Weratschnig said. It was like unlocking a secret for growing wine grapes in an environment that gets heavy rainfall each year, and, because of the humidity, experiences conditions that are perfect for fungal diseases that threaten more traditional grape varieties.
I recently spoke with Weratschnig to learn more about the work happening on the vineyard.
Is it common in Austria’s Steiermark region to find vineyards working with PIWI varieties?
The trend in the whole of Europe is that you’re starting to find PIWIs in more vineyards. In fact, you see a crazy amount of sales growth from these varieties in the nurseries.
I know marketing these grape varieties to the public isn’t always so easy. How do you approach marketing at Ploder Rosenberg?
We have Instagram and Facebook accounts, as well as a newsletter and a homepage, and what we do every now and again is spray out knowledge about PIWI varieties. People take it very well. But I will say, what we focus on more than anything is winemaking. We don’t want to see our wines be separated from others. PIWIs are a mix of all the varieties. We are careful with promotion on the bottles, though, because its not always allowed to write names of the grape varieties we grow on the bottle. We often have to use more fantastical names for our wines.
Why aren’t you allowed to list the names on the bottles?
The thing is that we must comply with European Union and Austrian laws*, and they tell us what we are allowed to write on bottles. It’s all closely linked to a quality system. Sometimes the hurdle with producing natural wine out of PIWIs is just too big. You have to look closely at the law to really see what’s allowed and what’s not.
*NOTE: Historically, some hybrid grape varieties with American genes have not been permitted for use in so-called “quality wines.” At the end of 2021, the EU decided to allow PIWI varieties for wines with protected designation of origin (PDO). This was done primarily in response to climate change reasons. However, there remain hurdles. Before hybrid varieties can be included in a specific PDO regulation, the consent of the member states and the competent regional authorities is required.
Is there a movement to change the rules?
I think they have tried. For me, though, I have to say I have never been afraid to sell a wine because of the wine varieties in them. But I do still see a movement against PIWIs just because they are new and people say they cannot show the terroir.
What’s your reaction to that point of view?
I would just answer: They are growing on a terroir, so they will show you terroir.
Maybe it will take one to two decades more to know which exact taste profile you will find from a souvigner gris growing in Steirmark, but it is happening. There is definitely a big lack of knowledge. I am very open to talking about PIWIs and I love to discuss them — as long as it’s a productive discussion. I have stopped some discussions with wine traders who discriminate. I am not a racist, I do not think one wine is inferior to another wine just because a particular variety of grape is not seen as as good as different one.
What do you think is at the core of this attitude?
I believe people are often afraid of stuff they don’t know. We have a long, long history with certain grape varieties. The idea that we could be changing our wine culture is uncomfortable to some people. And — of course — it’s always personal. People have big emotions attached to it — like with many luxury products.
Wine lives through emotion, the story of the winemaker, the sommelier. So when you have new varieties, you don’t have a lot of those emotions already connected to them.
All that said, you have to start from someplace, and I think people will get more open to it simply because there’s going to be a time in the very near future where there will be a lot more PIWIs on the vineyards. A lot. I just returned from a trip to Canada where they are growing a lot of hybrids. I think it’s beautiful. I think that if it allows people to grow wine in surroundings where I previously could not have imagined vines surviving because of the cold — I think that’s awesome.
In the end the most important thing is to have wine in a glass that makes you feel happy.
What are your thoughts about the culture growing around the American hybrid and native wine movement?
It’s not something that I’m particularly aware of in a deep way. For me, it is clear that it’s provoking the theme of inclusion here in Europe. There is a problem here around being more open. Sometimes it’s not just about being open, but just accepting that two things can exist next to each other. If wines made from PIWIs provoke people to think more about these things, then I think it’s a good thing.
Can you tell me more about the Ploder Rosenberg vineyards? What are you growing?
About 75% of our vineyards are now PIWI varieties, and we will not grow European varieties again.
Wow. That’s a powerful statement.
Farming starts at that very first moment, when you pick the right plant and put it in the right surroundings — the right habitat for it. The reality is that our farm is located in a very humid climate, and I know from the data that in the next two decades I will have more crazy thunderstorms and more crazy rainfalls. The idea of growing varieties that are less effected by humidity, that’s an easy answer for me.
You have to pick the right plant for your habitat. I’m not against European varieties — not at all — I just see the majority of the grapes we were growing on our farm were just not in the right place.
Can you give me a sense of the difference between growing a PIWI grape variety and a more traditional variety — like in practice?
Our souvignier gris we’ve treated one or two times over the normal years, with a maximum of four times in a heavy growing season. That represents a big difference. There are years where we have crazy-tough vegetation seasons because of the weather, and I have to treat our chardonnay more than 10 times. With PIWI varieties, it’s more than 50-75% less treating on average. That means a very big cut down in sprayings, soil compaction, CO² emissions, more time and less risk of work accidents.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.