Schloss (Schloss = Chateaux) Gobelsburg is one of the oldest wineries of Austria with a documented history back to 1171, when Cistercian monks, which were spreading at that time from Burgundy all over Europe, got their first vineyards in the area of Langenlois. The monastery and the monks have been working and looking after the vineyards themselves until 1995.
Since then Michael Moosbrugger took over the responsibility for the heritage. The primary goal is to preserve, to develop and to take the heritage and culture of winemaking of Schloss Gobelsburg into a new generation. A heritage which combines some of the oldest vineyards of Austria with the tradition of winemaking and the culture of generations.
Schloss Gobelsburg is located in the Danube area – 45 min west of Vienna. The Danube area is about the size of Burgundy’s Cote D’Or and is divided into five sub Appellations named after the valleys of the Danube – Wachau, Kremstal, Kamptal, Traisental and Wagram; Tal = Valley; so Kamptal means the valley of the Kamp river.
The winery is working vineyards on the banks of the Danube and its side rivers. (Krems, Kampt, Traisen) When you come to the Danube area you will find two archetypes of vineyards. On one side vineyards which are based on dry and mineral which are ideal for Riesling production.
On the other side you will find vineyards that are based on Löss or clay with a good water supply to the vines, which is ideal for Grüner Veltliner. The two grape varieties are complementary and as we have the two opposing structures in our vineyards, we need the two different grape varieties to represent their personalities.
The Appellation System is easy to understand as we are differentiating between three categories of wine:
- Regional wines
- Village wines
- Single vineyard wines (Ried in Austria
Since 1992 we are working on a vineyard classification system that is differentiating between:
- Non-classified single vineyards
- Erste Lage (1’er Cru)
- Grosse Lage (Grand Cru)
In the past 25 years we have been classifying so far 60 vineyards out of 700 as ‘Erste Lagen’. As a Classification of vineyards is a long term project that will take 30 to 40 years, we will only start in 5 to 10 years with the classification of the ‘Grosse Lagen’
All wines of the estate are related to the rich history of the estate, no matter if its white, red, sparkling or sweet wine. The main focus of the production is wines of origin (DAC) in all its different categories. My primary interest is on the different expression of soil which results in a wide variety of different single vineyard wines.
As a speciality, Michael is looking after winemaking philosophies based on the rich history of the estate. This is the fundament of TRADITION Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, which pays homage to the winemaking philosophy of the 19th century. So for these wines we working in the winemaking process in the same way as it was done 200 years ago.
The Pinot Family (Pinot Noir, St. Laurent, Zweigelt) dominates the estates red wines, which are grown on the old Danube river bed, where you find feast size river pebbles like in the Rhone valley.
Sparkling wine and sweet wines are also specialities of the estate, which is rounding up the picture of Austrian wine culture.
Austrian wine has a culture of pairing food and wine. In Austria they enjoy quiet a lot of wine and they normally enjoy wine always together with food. So we as winemakers were forced to produce good food companions. This is why Austrian wine is always dry wine (with the exception of the small segment of sweet wine).
Interview of Mr. Michael Moosbrugger – Owner / director
Question 1: Do you already export to JAPAN ? If yes, where ? If no, what type of importers & distributors are you looking for in JAPAN ?
We are imported by two companies in Japan:
Kosaka-Honachi MOTTOX Inc.
Higashiosaka-Shi, 577-0802 OSAKA
Tel: +81 6 6725 4925 info@mottox.co.jp www.mottox.co.jp
Austria World Association (AWA)
Norbert Tesch
2-14 Takatsuka-cho, Nishinomiya-Shi, 662-0066 Hyogo-Ken
Tel: +81 798 72 70 22, Fax: +81 798 72 50 21 awa@awa-inc.com www.awa-inc.com
Question 2: What is the most unique and qualitative part of your products, different from competitors ?
Due to the situation of 850 years of winemaking history our profile is based on the expertise of history, tradition and culture of winemaking.
Question 3: When did you start to export your brand worldwide, and what is your development plan for the next years ?
The wines of the estate were already sold on the export market centuries ago and currently we are exporting about 2/3 of our production worldwide. We are trying to be a representative of Austrian culture of wine on the international market.
Very recently, Weingut Schloss Gobelsburg has joined Business News Japan Wines & Spirits Challenge 2020 and won a gold and silver medal in this prestigious competition.
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