Description
About Gerhard Pittnauer
Gerhard Pittnauer is located on the east shore of the Neusiedlersee in Austria’s Burgenland region, which is at the eastern extremity of Austria bordering with Hungary. He’s interested in biodynamics, which he’s now implementing in his vineyards, and he told me that he stopped spraying synthetic chemicals last year. ‘We only use sulphur and copper’, Gerhard emphasizes, ‘and we spray BD500 and BD501’. 
These are two of the biodynamic preparations that assist with plant and soil health. ‘We use a quadbike as well as the tractor to spray, because this has less weight’, says Gerhard. ‘We use mechanical tilling, and this year I will try a natural green cover beneath the vines.’ He reports that he’s very pleased with the results of the 2006 vintage, when he didn’t use selected yeasts. ‘The results are wonderful.’
Switching to biodynamics so far seems to have gone well for Pittnauer. ‘It was a big risk to change everything, but now I’m happy and optimistic for the future’. The wines tasted here were impressive, even if three of them weren’t made with the help of biodynamics.
