This is one of the three most important and exciting moments in my life, after marrying my wonderful wife Johanna and the birth of our son, said Lucas Pichler, presenting the 2022, 2023 and 2024 pinot noirs in Vienna. The first are red wines from the famous family winery F. X. Pichler from the equally famous Wachau wine region along the Danube upstream from Vienna.
Five small vineyards
The grapes come from five small vineyards on the left bank of the great river, with a total area of 0.55 hectares. They imported the vines from Burgundy and began planting them in 2020. They also harvest a smaller amount of Pinot Noir from a vineyard owned by a friend. The 2022 and 2023 vintages will be on the market in the fall, but under the regional designation Wachauer Pinot Noir. The regulations are such that only Grüner Veltliner and Rhein Riesling can receive a higher, or narrower, degree of geographical origin protection.
We often drink pinot noir from Germany, France and other continents at home, and we wanted to prove that it is possible to produce top quality wine from this variety in the Wachau, emphasized Lucas Pichler. He added that his Pinot Noir spends about two years in wooden barrels. About two-thirds of the wine goes into new, and a third into used. One cask is Austrian, and the others are produced in Burgundy from wood of different types of oak and from forests in different locations.
Exporting 50 countries
Lucas and his wife Johanna to the winery F.X. They have been running Pichler since 2018, and cultivate 20 hectares. From the 2023 harvest, all grape wines from individual vineyards are certified as organic. They mostly have grüner veltliner, followed by riesling. These are also the varieties that made the Wachau region famous. They also have some muscat yellow and sauvignon white. More than a third of their vineyards are on steep slopes next to the Danube with terraced rocks. They produce between 100,000 and 150,000 bottles per year, and 65 percent are exported to more than 50 countries.
The Pichler family has a winemaking tradition that dates back almost 200 years. In the mid-19th century, winemaker Franz Pichler II moved the family from the wine-growing village of Rohrendorf near Krems to the Wachau region, about 15 kilometers away. His grandson Franz Pichler VI acquired his own estate in the local municipality of Dürnstein in 1898. They grew in that wine cellar until 2008, when they moved to a new winery the following year.
Born in wineries
Lukas Franz Pichler studied oenology in Krems and gained experience in the German Palatinate and Southern Styria. Since 1999, he has been an oenologist at the F.X. Pichler family winery. His wife Johanna Elisabeth Pichler was born in the family winery in Oppenheim in the German wine-growing region of Rheinhessen. There she completed a viticulture school and a degree in viticulture economics. She met Lucas Franz in 2003 and soon moved from Rheinhessen to Wachau,