Hirsch

The secret of the Hirsch estate’s success in largely based upon the complementary cooperation of generations within the winery: Josef Hirsch tends the vineyards trusting in his experience and insight regarding the processes of nature while his son Johannes makes and matures wines that showcase his feeling, taste and talent as a winemaker.The products of the harmonious cooperation are juicy and agreeable wines that stand out due to their distinctive aromas, their complexity and firm structure and, finally, their fine balance.

Though they have and use “state of the art”-equipment in their cellar, they also make use of such quality-enhancing methods, that have been used to produce great wines for centuries – harvesting in small crates, gentle processing of the grapes, fermentation with natural yeasts and doing without chemical intervention as well as bottling late.

The Varieties

Being ahead of ones time is often a result of counter-cyclical action. Just at a time when the red wine boom was at its peak, the Hirsch family, that had produced good red wines for several decades, decided to concentrate on two white varieties only.

Naturally the family picked those two varieties that thrive best in the Kamp Valley and that can potentially produce wines of world class: Grüner Veltliner und Riesling.

The Vineyards

The estate’s top vineyard sites offer perfect geological and microclimatic preconditions for culitvating these two varieties, thus producing wines the clear-cut varietal characters of which are embedded with the distinctive regional profile of the Kamp Valley.

It is far better to work with nature, than to try to fight it.
For decades now Josef Hirsch has followed his creed.

In the vineyards he exclusively uses natural fertilizers which he gets from his old friend and companion Robert Paget who is a artisan cheesemaker. The goats and buffalos that produce the high-quality milk used for Paget’s cheeses are also the source for the top-class natural fertilizers applied in the Hirsch estate’s vineyards. Additionally, all of the vineyards are farmed sustainably, using integrated pest management methods to control pests and at the same time to minimize the negative effects on beneficial insects, thus creating a basis for a funtioning agro-ecosystem in which natural predator-prey-communities exist.