Weninger
Franz Weninger is our Austrian-Hungarian winemaker with vineyards and a winery on both sides of the border in Burgenland (AU) / Sopron(HU) wine region. He is the living history of a true Ponzichter (bean grower), whose primary focus is on the wellbeing of biodiversity is their vineyards.
Biodynamic
Since 1828 the Weninger family cultivated a mixed farm:
5 cows, 25 hectares of arable land, and 5 hectares of vineyards.
In the 1930s the family ordered a mobile threshing machine, which – due to its size and resulting unwieldiness in Horitschon’s narrow streets – is sent straight back. Great-grandfather Franz sued the company but lost. And the farm went up for auction.
Six years later, “Uncle Franz”, who had emigrated to America in 1928, managed to raise the money to save the farm. In 1951 he visited Austria for for the first time since he left, waived all claims to the farm, and gave it to Ludwig and Rózsa. Out of gratitude, Grandmother Rózsa promised Uncle Franz to name her first-born son after him.
Rózsa Petsovits
was born in 1921 in Horitschon, Hungary. In the same year Horitschon became part of Austria. Just as the history of Burgenland is a story of German-speaking Hungary, so does this wine think without borders.
Syrah from Hungary grown on gneiss, mingles with Blaufränkisch and Zweigelt from Austria grown on loam, as well as Pinot Noir on limestone.
A rosé to remember, dedicated to a very active grandmother.
Ponzichter / Bohnenzüchter
- meaning ‘bean grower’ - was the nickname of German winegrowers in Sopron. Hungarians called the German winegrowers Ponzichter, because they grew vegetables, mainly beans, between the vine rows.This piqued my interest because it is very special from a biodynamic point of view.
If there was a bad vintage, the farmers still had something to eat.
But second, the beans count to the legumes, and thus they have the ability to assimilate nitrogen from the air to the soil. The wine is a light red grown on our biodynamic vineyards in Hungary and Austria.
In 1983 Franz Ludwig Weninger took over the family farm. Over the years the family farm in Horitschon (currently 25 hectares) was transformed into an exclusively vine-growing operation.
In 1997 he also bought vineyards in the small village of Balf near Sopron.
Born in 1979, Franz Reinhard Weninger grew up on his parents’ wine estate in Horitschon, central Burgenland. Franz is in charge of the Sopron-Balf winery since 2000, then in 2011 he also took over the Horitschon estate together with his wife Petra.