Karl and Eva Schnabel farm 5 hectares of vines on the Sausal hill in Styria, in the south of Austria.

Karl grew up in this part of Styria and has worked with the land for most of his life. His family were involved in cattle farming and to this day he favours a closed circuit farming system and his small herd of cattle make up a fundamental part of the whole. To this day he and Eva and their three sons live in the home that belonged to Karl's grandparents and it still exudes the happy energy of its former days as an inn and dance hall.

He and Eva worked in Burgundy in 1997 and 1998 and their respective formal educations were taken in Vienna.

Since 2003 their vineyards have been certified biodynamic and since 2007 every wine that they produce is free of added sulphites. The domaine is a member of Les Vins S.A.I.N.S and Karl and Eva are among the most informed, capable and enthusiastic proponents of organic agriculture we’ve ever met.

Their terroir is very interesting. The Sausal hill rises quite dramatically from the plains and gently undulating countryside around Gleinstätten and its soil composition is just so wonderfully fascinating. The hill is a former island which rose roughly 300 million years ago and the resultant soils are loose and very stoney. The stones are largely a primary rock mix of quartz, flint and silica, though scarcely any clay or limestone, and the wines have very strong mineral presence as a result.

Karl farms three separate parcels across the hill and the plantings are a mix of riesling, morillon (chardonnay), zweigelt, blaufränkisch and pinot noir. Visiting these vineyards with Karl is maybe the most informative and thrilling thing I could recommend for anyone interested in organic agriculture, healthy food and biodiversity. He is unbelievably knowledgeable and driven when it comes to farming naturally — particularly regarding herbal and mineral vineyard applications.

His vineyards sing. Karl firmly believes that the vineyard will give you most of the remedies you'll need to combat ailments amongst the plants and his greatest tools are nettle, horsetail, the quartz itself and a complete willingness to encourage life in the vineyard. He combats mildew with nettle, oidium with horsetail and prefers to never cut grass so that the proper composting cycle can take place. He wholly encourages snakes amongst the vines so as to nullify the risk of a root-eating rat that populates the region.

Karl's wines are all made in a similar way. Perfect fruit is selected in the vineyard, brought to the winery and destemmed, fermented in tank and then run to old barrel for the year. It sounds simple but the work throughout the year in the vineyard means that not only is the fruit incredibly balanced with propitious PH, acidity and nutrient levels but the indigenous yeast cultures make for remarkably healthy fermentations and, ultimately, very high quality wines. Only local water is used for cleaning.

In addition to their own parcels, Karl has for the past few years made two cuvees with sauvignon blanc from a friend’s vineyard, near the Slovenian border to the south. This vineyard is planted over younger calcareous soil, and as a result these cuvees are less mineral, with a more concentrated and direct acidic structure.