What we love about Wenzel is ...well…everything! First and foremost is that he makes pure, delightfully clean natural wine. Second is his story, that of a passionate, successful winemaker who had a philosophical revelation. A natural winemaker’s job is to cultivate vitality he says. “I call natural wine the product of pure, unadulterated fermented grape juice. Organic farming is simply the prerequisite.” Michael stopped using any synthetic pesticides and began to rely entirely on native yeasts. “Natural yeasts are - and it took me a long time to realize this - the real winemakers. My responsibility as a winemaker is to respect nature.” They removed all metal from their vineyard. Each vine now has wooden support tied with a natural, biodegradable hemp ribbon. They began to prune their vines short, lower to the ground, so nutrients travel more easily into the vine. Their vines are densely planted to foster healthy competition increasing phenolics and keeping sugar levels low. Michael says this creates a more “harmonious” and balanced wine. “Good natural wine is not filling. There are many wines that you have had enough of after one glass. Natural wine ... has to be light and drinkable.”

A wildly delicious and rare one-barrel bottling of old vine Furmint from the Furmint master Michael Wenzel. Furmint was once the most widely planted white grape in what is now Austria and Hungary until phylloxera and two world wars struck. In a few decades, Furmint went from dominating white wine production to near extinction. More Furmint remained however in Hungary because it is responsible for Tokaji’s renowned sweet wine. But dry Furmint has both a cultural and historical role for both Austrians and Hungarians so in 1984, Michael Wenzel's father smuggled cuttings back over the border into Austria. These plantings bore fruit that became the first dry Wenzel Furmint in 1987. It is from these vines that Michael crafts this unsulphured, clean, precise, and delicious wine. Think Grand Cru Burgundy.