Schödl Family
- Winemakers: Mathias, Viktoria, and Leonhard Schödl (siblings)
- Village: Loidesthal
- Hectares: 18
- History: First generation for quality wine & export
- Farming Practices: Certified Organic, some biodynamic practices
- Varietals: Focus on Grüner Veltliner; also Riesling, Sämling, Sankt Laurent, Roter Muskateller, Pinot Noir, Weissburgunder
- Top Vineyards: Kreuthern, Goetzenthal, Steinberg
The People
The Schödls are young, driven, wunderkind winemakers who deserve your respect, but would prefer your company over a few glasses, some great tunes playing in the background. Their father was a teacher at Klosterneuberg (the oldest winemaking school in the world, as any self-respecting Austrian will remind you) and used the family’s old-school dugout cellar as a community hub, helping his neighbors make blending decisions and tame wild fermentations. After the kids finished wine school and traveled for internships and harvests abroad (South Africa, California, New York, New Zealand), Viktoria, Mathias, and Leonhard came home and quickly grew that hobby cellar into a world-class winery. And that, my friends, is oh so much harder than it sounds.
The thing that continues to excite me about working with the Schödls is how they fearlessly embrace the acrobatics involved in dialing in one’s voice as a winemaker, and time and time again they nail the landing on the first try. It takes a certain kind of boldness, but it also takes a hell of a lot of skill, attention to detail, and extremely high aesthetic standards. What can I say – they’ve just got it.
The Wines
I tasted the GV Blumenthal in a seminar several years ago, before I was a broker and before I had even met the Schödls, and I was won over from the first sip. The Schödls’ wines have always been charming and lovable in the glass, but what they are now is elegant, lifted, and so very specific. Their single vineyard Grüners grow more complex and textural by the vintage, and their natural line, which started as a trial in 2019, proved to be a home run on their first at bat.
What does the future hold? A whole lot of gorgeous, spicy GV, some absolutely killer low and no sulfer bottlings, and a deepening focus on indigenous varietals, both red and white. Keep your eye out in 2021 for “Free Your Mind”, a GV and Sämling co-ferment on the skins. It… does what it says it does.