D’Amato & Szabo: Wine Thieves – Episode 16

The Wine Thieves launch 2021 on a highly positive note: “Green Austria”, the first in a mini-series on Austrian wines. This small country in the heart of Europe has quietly been green, and getting greener for over a century, showing the way towards more responsible, earth-friendly wine production. Austria registered the first organic farm in the world in 1927, and was the first country to create national organic farming regulations. And fully 15% of Austria’s vineyards are farmed organically, 3x more than the world average, while nearly 100 producers are certified biodynamic, a remarkable number for a country with only 40,000 hectares of vines. Our guest is celebrated vintner Fred Loimer of Weingut Loimer, a biodynamic producer in the Kamptal region since 2006, and co-founder of Respekt-Biodyn. Loimer shares his thoughts on the history and evolution of environmentally-responsible winegrowing in Austria, sustainable certification, natural wines, changes to the appellation system and much more.