Stefan Landauer
Austria
Stefan's Wines
- Austria
- 2Â wines
- 1Â style
He may be young, but wine making is in Stefan's blood
Despite Stefan having the wealth of 370 years of family winemaking experience and tradition available to him, he’s determined to reinvent himself and find his own unbeaten path.
Calling himself a wine grower and not a winemaker, Stefan believes it’s what happens when the grapes are on the vine that sets up his wines to be special.
Using the unique microclimate of Austria to his advantage, and a lot of gut decision making, Stefan's dream is to carry on the family motto of getting the highest quality with no strings attached but while adapting to all the current challenges faced by so many winemakers.
Vineyard Location
Stefan Landauer's Story
Stefan's Story
So I was kinda born into it, but never had any sort of pressure to pursuit a career in the wine industry. I guess it slowly creeped up on me and I fell in love with it.
I would not call myself a winemaker. I see myself more of a winegrower, wine making only really involves a few weeks of work. Wine growing is what you do all year around. It sets up the quality of the vintage, and therefore if people like your wine or not.
I am 26 years old & I have about 10 harvests under my belt. Right at the point where I feel a lot more relaxed during harvest, yet still have butterflies in my stomach.
What I love about my is the diversity, every day is different. Every year is different. Sure, you can rely on a bit of experience, but mostly it’s all based on gut decisions. Learn- Adapt- Improvise. I feel like what makes our wines special is a combination of the people, the terroir and the energy at our winery.
My dream varietal is the St. Laurent, an unsung Austrian hero grape! Well, actually it's a pain in the butt to grow, never yields good and always rots. In the right hands though, you end up with wines that will remind you of a raw dirty old northern Rhône Syrah. For me personally, that’s the biggest compliment you can give a wine.
Since climate change is hitting us all pretty hard, especially the wine industry.
It’s the only industry where you can literally feel, taste & and see climate change.
As a young winegrower, you are facing challenges none of the previous generations had to deal with. It’s stressful and you have to be a bit loco to become a wine grower/maker these days. You have to realize early on, you can’t rely on knowledge from the previous generations. Reinvent yourself; find your own unbeaten path.
You’re basically supporting a small family business that puts a lot of love, pride and passion in our products. With every bottle of wine you’re helping us to invest in the future, like planting new vineyards, buying new machinery & equipment that will help us to stay competitive against big faceless companies.
