Lichtenberger-Gonzales "Muschelkalk" Weiss, Burgenland, Austria 2021

FROM WINEMONGER:

THE WINE: A cuvee of Gruner Veltliner, Weissburgunder and Welschriesling, the Muschelkalk aims at showing the Leithaberg vineyards' limestone and schist soils through Austria's autochthonous varieties. A truly stunning little wine, one that will quickly draw you in and make you wish you'd gotten more of it. Elegant and complex, the Muschelkalk white surprises with a distinct note of herbs, tea, bergamot orange, white flowers and fine graphite.

THE PRODUCER: It was at an internship at a California winery that Martin Lichtenberger met the love of his life Ariana Gonzalez, a Spanish winemaker. Once back in Austria the two further honed their craft by making wines for Gernot Heinrich and Rosi Schuster, while slowly but surely developing their own vision for what was to become the new incarnation of Martin's parents' winery: Lichtenberger-Gonzalez.

With this much background in winemaking on both sides it was clear that the wines could only be made a certain way, one that would go back to the roots of winemaking where quality is produced by hand and without the use of technology. Everything they needed to make great wines had long been invented and the other ingredients needed, namely old vines, interesting terroir in the form of limestone were available to them at the Leithaberg mountains of the Burgenland region where Martin had grown up.