Natural Zweigelt 2021

Wine description for Natural Zweigelt 2021 by Hajszan Neumann

Colour & appearance

Bright, dense ruby red with violet reflections – a red wine that signals from the very first pour that nothing here has been trimmed or tamed.

Nose

Reductive at first, then a dense weave of dark and red fruit: elderberry, sloe, redcurrant, raspberry and blackberry. Floral notes of violet and hibiscus lend elegance, while white and black pepper provide sharp definition. Alongside this, an almost forest-like undertone – blackcurrant bush, broken twigs, fir bark and needles – gives the wine a cool, balsamic depth.

Palate

Lean, racy, silky and cool. Despite all its fruit intensity, the wine remains highly filigree, carried by a vibrant acidity and herbaceous, green-fresh aromas. Crisp, almost angular – a Zweigelt that deliberately eschews opulent ripeness in favour of tension.

Finish

Cool and precise, with lingering spice and an echo of forest and dark berries. Dry, linear, without any softening sweetness.

Terroir & origin

The Zweigelt vines are rooted in two old parcels of the Ried Weisleiten on Vienna’s Nussberg – one of the capital’s most historic vineyard sites. The heavy, iron-rich soils shape the wine’s dark-fruited, earthy character. Vienna is one of the few metropolises worldwide where vineyards lie within the city limits – Hajszan Neumann harnesses this unique setting to produce uncompromising natural wines.

Grape variety & vinification

Zweigelt meets a portion of Cabernet Sauvignon. Maceration is extended to an unusual nine weeks, and maturation takes place in neutral concrete eggs. After around six months, the wines are blended and bottled without added sulphur – fining and filtration are strictly avoided. The estate is respekt-BIODYN-certified and farmed biodynamically.

Food pairings

Its cool freshness and herbal spice make it an ideal partner for grilled flank steak with green beans and thyme jus, beetroot carpaccio with wild herb salad, or smoked venison ham with lingonberry vinaigrette and toasted pine nuts. Served slightly chilled, it shows at its most expressive.

Special characteristics

Hajszan Neumann is Fritz Wieninger’s intentionally wild counter-project to the classical Weingut Wieninger: here on the Nussberg, boundaries are meant to be pushed. The Natural Zweigelt 2021 is the result of radical non-intervention – a red wine with edges, angles and an honest signature, demonstrating just how seriously a top Austrian winemaker takes the subject of natural wine.