Gut Oggau Winifred Rosé 2024

Gut Oggau occupies a restored 17th-century winery in the small village of Oggau, overlooking Lake Neusiedl in Austria's Burgenland. Eduard Tscheppe and Stephanie Tscheppe-Eselböck founded the estate in 2007 after discovering the abandoned property. Eduard came from a conventional winemaking family in Styria; Stephanie's family owned Taubenkobel, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Burgenland. They met at a wine fair in Vienna in 2005.

The estate's 20-year period of neglect before their arrival proved advantageous: all chemical residues had washed from the soils, allowing immediate conversion to biodynamic farming without a transition period. Today, Gut Oggau holds full Demeter certification across approximately 25 hectares. The couple restored everything meticulously, including a 200-year-old vertical screw press still used for certain wines.

Working in the cellar, Eduard and Stephanie observed that wines from different parcels possessed distinct personalities. Rather than homogenize these differences, they chose to celebrate them by creating a fictional family. Each wine bears a portrait drawn by artist Jung von Matt and a name representing its character. The children—Theodora, Atanasius, Winifred—come from younger vines on gravel and limestone, yielding lighter, more energetic wines. The parents—Joschuari, Emmeram, Timotheus, Josephine—derive from warmer sites with greater sun exposure. The grandparents—Mechthild, Bertholdi—represent the oldest vines, producing the estate's most structured cuvées.

Winifred holds a special position: she's the youngest in the family, and her dedicated vineyard produces only rosé—never saignée from red wine production. This commitment to rosé as a serious category, not a byproduct, distinguishes Winifred in the marketplace. With only about 40,000 bottles produced annually across all wines, Gut Oggau remains one of Austria's most sought-after producers.

Discover more from Gut Oggau: Josephine Rot, Joschuari Rot, Bertholdi Rot, Theodora Weiss, Timotheus Weiss. Browse best-selling natural wines.

Burgenland lies along Austria's eastern border with Hungary, part of the Pannonian Plain that extends across Central Europe. This is Austria's warmest wine region and its second-largest, with approximately 32,200 acres under vine. The landscape is dominated by Lake Neusiedl (Neusiedler See), one of Europe's largest steppe lakes, whose shallow waters create humid microclimates and moderate temperature extremes.

The village of Oggau sits on the lake's western shore, historically recognized as one of the first places in Austria to cultivate red grape varieties. Soils here combine gravel and limestone, offering good drainage and mineral content that contribute freshness to wines that might otherwise become overly ripe in such a warm climate. The Pannonian climate—hot continental with influence from both warm Hungarian air and cooler Alpine breezes—extends the growing season while preserving natural acidity.

Burgenland divides into four DAC (Districtus Austriae Controllatus) zones. Neusiedlersee, where Gut Oggau is located, surrounds the lake and produces both dry wines and the botrytized dessert wines for which the region has earned international acclaim. Leithaberg to the north features pronounced minerality from ancient soils. Mittelburgenland to the south has become Austria's premier zone for red wine, particularly Blaufränkisch. Eisenberg in the southeast yields structured, tannic reds from iron-rich terrain.

Natural and biodynamic winemaking has taken strong hold in Burgenland. The region's warm climate and well-drained soils reduce disease pressure, making organic viticulture practical. Producers like Gut Oggau, Claus Preisinger, Meinklang, and Heinrich have established Burgenland as a center for minimal intervention winemaking in Austria. Indigenous varieties—Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt, St. Laurent—dominate alongside international cultivars.

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