Austria · Kamptal

Weingut Hirsch

From a 500-year-old Kammern farmstead in Kamptal, Johannes Hirsch makes Grüner Veltliner and Riesling from slopes around Kammern and Zöbing. Whole-cluster pressing, ambient yeasts and extended lees ageing bring dry fruit, acidity and texture into focus.

The producer

Weingut Hirsch works from Kammern in Austria’s Kamptal, where the family has farmed since 1878 and Johannes Hirsch now makes wine from Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. Much of the estate lies on slopes around Kammern and Zöbing, so the labels move from stainless-steel village wines to named sites such as Lamm, Gaisberg and Heiligenstein. A Ried name narrows the origin in the bottle and brings a fuller, more structured frame.

The vineyards are cultivated biodynamically, while whole-cluster pressing, ambient-yeast fermentation, blocked malolactic conversion and lees ageing retain lively acidity and build texture. Grüner Veltliner leans towards dry fruit, spice and savoury grip; Riesling brings citrus, floral notes and a long mineral finish. At the Erste Lage level, steel and oak are adjusted to the vintage, adding weight without turning the wines overtly woody.

Known for

Kamptal Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, from stainless-steel village wines to site-specific Erste Lage bottlings.

Notable facts

The story

The 2002 screw-cap bottle

In 2002, Hirsch bottled an Austrian single-vineyard wine under screw cap, reported as the first producer in the country to do so. The closure was used for a wine with a named vineyard on its label, rather than for a basic bottle. Hirsch was already building its range around places such as Lamm, Gaisberg and Heiligenstein, and this bottle paired that site-specific approach with a twist cap. The wine still carried its grape, origin and vineyard name, but opened without a corkscrew. That 2002 decision remains a concrete part of the estate’s history alongside the family farmstead in Kammern and its later focus on Grüner Veltliner and Riesling.

From the atlas

Weingut Hirsch

At A Glance

The Producer

Weingut Hirsch is Johannes Hirsch’s Kammern estate in Austria’s Kamptal. The family works from a 500-year-old tithing farmstead and concentrates on Grüner Veltliner and Riesling; those two grapes shape both the everyday bottles and the vineyard-labelled wines. Grüner Veltliner accounts for the larger share of plantings, while Riesling supplies the Zöbing and single-site bottlings, so the label usually tells you whether the glass will turn towards peppery, textured Grüner or citrus-led Riesling.

Place

Kammern and nearby Zöbing sit within Kamptal, where Hirsch reports that 85% of its holdings are on slopes in those two places. That distribution matters because the range is organised around named vineyards rather than a single blended estate wine: a Kammern site can appear as Ried Lamm Grüner Veltliner, while Zöbing appears on Riesling labels such as Ried Heiligenstein. Place is therefore not background on these bottles; it is part of the wine’s name and its intended shape.

Soil And Site

The documented site picture is one of slopes, not a single uniform vineyard floor. Hirsch works named sites including Lamm, Gaisberg, Grub, Renner and Heiligenstein-Rotfels, then bottles several of them separately. A vineyard name on a Hirsch label signals a narrower origin than a village wine, and the estate supports that distinction in the cellar with a different maturation approach for its Erste Lage wines.

Story

The Hirsch family has been at the farmstead since 1878, when winegrowing sat alongside other crops. During the 1970s, Johannes Hirsch’s father Josef began putting more of the family’s work into wine, shifting the estate’s centre of gravity towards vineyard bottles. Organic farming also began in that decade. Johannes later became a founding member of Respekt in 2006, while the farm’s focus remained practical: Grüner Veltliner and Riesling from the slopes around Kammern and Zöbing.

Vineyards And Cellar

Hirsch describes its vineyards as biodynamically cultivated. In the cellar, grapes are whole-cluster pressed and fermented with ambient yeasts, without temperature control; malolactic fermentation is blocked. The result is a production sequence designed to retain the grapes’ acidity rather than soften it through malolactic conversion, while extended lees ageing adds body and a more settled texture before bottling.

The cellar changes as the range rises. Basic and village wines are generally fermented and matured in stainless steel, keeping fruit, acidity and grape character in view. Erste Lage wines combine steel and oak, with more steel used in warmer years. Oak is therefore not a fixed house flavour: its role shifts with the vintage, while lees time supplies texture and length across the range.

Wines

Hirschvergnügen and the village-level wines introduce the estate through stainless-steel handling, where Grüner Veltliner can show dry fruit, acidity and a firmer peppery grip, and Riesling can carry citrus and floral notes on a lighter body. Zöbing Riesling and Hirschin Riesling sit in that part of the range, before the labels narrow to individual vineyards.

At the site level, Ried Gaisberg appears in both Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, while Ried Lamm is Grüner Veltliner and Ried Heiligenstein and Heiligenstein-Rotfels are Riesling. Ried Heiligenstein Riesling 2017 is a Zöbing single-site Kamptal DAC and 1 ÖTW wine; Ried Gaisberg Riesling 2015 is Kamptal DAC Reserve and 1 ÖTW. Ried Lamm Grüner Veltliner 2022 is a Kammern single-site Kamptal DAC and 1 ÖTW wine. These bottles receive the steel-and-oak approach, so their fruit is carried by more weight and lees-derived texture than the stainless-steel wines.

In The Glass

Across the Rieslings, expect dry citrus fruit, floral lift and high acidity, with lees ageing broadening the palate before a long, mineral finish. The single-site wines use oak alongside steel, so the texture can feel more layered without turning the wine into an overtly woody style. Gaisberg and Heiligenstein Riesling put acidity and citrus at the front; the vineyard designation marks a more concentrated, structured bottle.

Grüner Veltliner moves the profile towards ripe fruit, spice and savoury grip. In Ried Lamm, the combination of a named Kammern site, Grüner’s naturally peppery character and longer maturation produces a dry wine with body and a firmer mid-palate. Its finish is driven by acidity and texture rather than sweetness.

A Bottle To Understand It

Begin with Ried Lamm Grüner Veltliner 2022. It is a single-site Kammern Grüner Veltliner classified as Kamptal DAC and 1 ÖTW, joining Hirsch’s principal grape to one of its named vineyards. The wine’s dry fruit, spice, acidity and savoury grip show Grüner Veltliner in a fuller frame, while the steel-and-oak maturation and lees ageing bring weight and texture without obscuring the fruit. It is the bottle to choose when a crisp village Grüner feels too slight but a richly oaked white feels too heavy.

Anecdote

In 2002, Hirsch bottled an Austrian single-vineyard wine under screw cap, reported as the first estate in the country to do so. The choice was applied not to a simple, quickly sold wine but to a vineyard-specific bottle: a wine carrying a named place on its label. At a time when cork still dominated the image of serious European wine, the Hirsch closure put a screw cap above a single-vineyard wine from Kamptal. The estate’s bottle could still name its site, grape and origin, but it opened with a twist rather than a corkscrew.

Final Word

Hirsch makes Kamptal easier to read through two grapes and a ladder of labels. Stainless steel keeps the lower range dry, fruit-led and brisk; named sites bring more texture, oak influence and length. Start with Lamm Grüner Veltliner, then compare it with a Heiligenstein or Gaisberg Riesling to see how the estate separates grape and vineyard.

Sources

Open Weingut Hirsch in the interactive map →