Austria · Neusiedlersee

Weingut Heinrich

Biodynamic wines from Gols, Burgenland, spanning named-site reds, Pinot Noir and skin-contact wines.

The producer

Weingut Heinrich works from Gols, northeast of Lake Neusiedl, where Gernot and Heike Heinrich released Gabarinza as their first joint wine in 1990. The named old hillside site supplies a blend of Zweigelt, Blaufränkisch and Merlot from Ice Age terrace gravel and sandy-calcareous sediments with clay; elsewhere, mica-schist and quartz-schist carry Blaufränkisch, Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay.

The estate has cultivated biodynamically since the early 2000s, with animals permanently integrated into the farm since 2014. Its range moves from Gabarinza’s site-led red blend to fine-lees-aged Pinot Noir and skin-contact wines. Naked Orange is highly aromatic and lighter in body, with fresh acidity and large-wood élevage; Graue Freyheit takes skin contact toward firmer texture and grip.

Known for

Biodynamic Gols wines, from Gabarinza’s named-site red blend to aromatic skin-contact bottlings.

Notable facts

The story

The first Gabarinza

Gernot and Heike Heinrich released their first joint wine with the 1990 vintage. They named it Gabarinza after an old hillside site in Gols, tying the bottle to a place rather than inventing a separate brand name. The wine brought together Zweigelt, Blaufränkisch and Merlot from ground that changes up the slope: Ice Age terrace gravel below, then fine sandy-calcareous lake sediments with substantial clay. It was their first shared release, with the vineyard name and the three-grape blend established in the bottle from the start.

From the atlas

Weingut Heinrich

At A Glance

The Producer

Weingut Heinrich works from Baumgarten 60 in Gols, on Burgenland’s side of Lake Neusiedl. Its bottles move between red wine and skin-contact wine, but Gabarinza provides a useful centre: a blend of Zweigelt, Blaufränkisch and Merlot named for an old Gols hillside. The link between a named slope, three red grapes and one label keeps the range rooted in a specific part of the village.

Place

Gols lies northeast of Lake Neusiedl, and Heinrich’s vineyards give that location more than one expression. Gabarinza comes from an old Gols hillside, while another estate area carries Blaufränkisch, Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay. The result is not a single-grape cellar: red varieties and pale-skinned varieties appear in separate wines, with site and winemaking determining whether the bottle is red, white or orange.

Soil And Site

Gabarinza grows across Ice Age terrace gravel and, higher on the slope, fine sandy-calcareous lake sediments with substantial clay. Those materials make the hillside a varied growing ground rather than a uniform block, and the wine carries the Gabarinza name rather than appearing as an unnamed red blend.

A separate vineyard area is planted with Blaufränkisch, Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay on mica-schist and quartz-schist. Keeping these schist soils distinct from Gabarinza’s gravel, sand, limestone and clay clarifies why the estate can make both red wines and skin-contact wines without treating every parcel as interchangeable.

Story

The estate’s farming changed before its recent orange wines became visible in the range. Heinrich says it has cultivated biodynamically since the early 2000s, then made animals a permanent part of the farm in 2014 to help close that cycle. The decision joins vine rows, animals and composting into the same farm system, while the cellar continues to release wines as different in form as a named red blend, Pinot Noir and skin-contact whites.

Vineyards And Cellar

Biodynamic cultivation is the vineyard framework, and the animals introduced permanently in 2014 are part of its practical cycle. In the cellar, the range divides by method as well as grape: Naked Orange is skin-fermented and raised in large wooden vessels, while Graue Freyheit 2021 also uses skin contact. Skin contact leaves the juice with grape skins during fermentation, giving these wines a different route to texture and grip from a conventionally pressed white wine.

Pinot Noir 2024 follows another path, with fine-lees ageing rather than skin-contact framing. Lees are the spent yeast cells left after fermentation; keeping wine on them can build texture through ageing. That makes Pinot Noir a red-wine branch of the range, separate from the aromatic, skin-fermented bottles.

Wines

Gabarinza is the historic named-site red: Zweigelt, Blaufränkisch and Merlot assembled from the old Gols hillside. Its role is structural as much as historical, putting a three-grape red blend against the varied ground of terrace gravel and sandy-calcareous sediments with clay.

Naked Orange and Graue Freyheit take the range toward skin-contact wine. Naked Orange is highly aromatic and lighter in body, with acidity that supports its freshness; its time in large wooden vessels follows the skin fermentation. Graue Freyheit 2021 is also skin-fermented, but its documented profile is more structured, making it the firmer, more textural side of this branch.

Pinot Noir 2024 adds a red wine shaped by fine-lees ageing. Alongside Gabarinza’s three-grape construction, it shows that Heinrich’s reds can be either a named blend or a single-variety wine, with lees ageing supplying a separate textural element.

In The Glass

Naked Orange is the clearest sensory starting point: aromatic on the nose, lighter on the palate, and carried by refreshing acidity. Skin fermentation supplies the orange-wine frame, while large wooden vessels provide the élevage setting; the wine is described as capable of ageing for three to four years.

Graue Freyheit 2021 moves toward more structure through its skin contact, so expect more grip and weight than from the lighter Naked Orange. Pinot Noir 2024 takes a red-fruit route instead, with fine-lees ageing shaping the palate. Across the range, the useful contrast is between acidity and aromatic lift in Naked Orange, skin-derived texture in Graue Freyheit, and lees-shaped texture in Pinot Noir.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Naked Orange. It is a skin-fermented orange wine raised in large wooden vessels, highly aromatic and lighter in body, with acidity that keeps the palate fresh. Its blend is described differently by the available sources, so the bottle is better understood through its method than through a fixed grape formula: grape skins remain part of fermentation, then the wine develops in wood. It shows Heinrich’s move beyond red grapes without losing contact with vineyard work and cellar process.

Anecdote

Gernot and Heike Heinrich released their first joint wine with the 1990 vintage. They called it Gabarinza, taking the name from an old hillside site in Gols rather than creating a new brand name for the bottle. The wine itself was a blend of Zweigelt, Blaufränkisch and Merlot, drawn from a slope where Ice Age terrace gravel meets finer sandy-calcareous lake sediments with substantial clay. That first shared release put the vineyard name, the three grapes and the couple’s work together on one label. Gabarinza remains the estate’s early, named-site red reference point.

Final Word

Heinrich is easiest to follow through the physical details: Gols hillside gravel and clay in Gabarinza, schist under other parcels, animals in the biodynamic farm, skins in the orange wines, and fine lees beneath the Pinot Noir.

Sources

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