Weingut Nastl

The story

Christian Nastl’s return to Langenlois

Before taking charge of the family cellar in Langenlois, Christian Nastl spent periods in Germany, the United States and New Zealand. He then returned to the estate where the Nastl family’s winegrowing history had first been documented in 1656. Christian now runs the cellar while his father, Günter, works with him in the vineyards; Renate, Alexander and Petra are also part of the present family business. The winery describes Christian’s time abroad as the foundation of his wine style. His wines are made in a three-level cellar where grapes can move by gravity, with stainless-steel tanks linked by passages to a wooden-barrel cellar and vinotheque described as 300 years old.

From the atlas

Weingut Nastl

At A Glance

Weingut Nastl is a 12-hectare family estate in Langenlois, Kamptal, where winegrowing under the Nastl name was first documented in 1656. Renate and Günter Nastl work with their children Christian, Alexander and Petra; Günter and Christian tend the vines, while Christian runs the cellar. The bottles move from fruit-led Zweigelt Rosé to Kamptal DAC wines and the Gigant reserve range of Grüner Veltliner, Riesling and Zweigelt.

The Producer

Nastl joins a long family record to a working estate in Langenlois rather than treating the 1656 date as decoration. The present family divides the work across vineyard, cellar and hospitality, and Christian’s cellar role gives the wines a direct link between the fruit grown with Günter and the bottles released under the estate name. A family Heuriger has also operated in Langenlois for more than 60 years, putting the wines alongside food and a local table.

Place

Langenlois sits in Kamptal, in Lower Austria, and that regional address appears on the estate’s NastlKamptalDAC wines. Kamptal DAC is the designation carried by these regionally defined bottlings, so the label points back to Kamptal rather than simply to a family range name. Grüner Veltliner is central to the estate’s work, while Riesling and Zweigelt extend the grape palette from white wine to rosé and red.

Soil And Site

Steinmassl, Kittmannsberg, Spiegel, Käferberg and Liss are the vineyard names Nastl places beneath its wines. Those names give the estate several distinct geographical anchors within Langenlois; Kittmannsberg, for example, appears with a 2022 Grüner Veltliner Kamptal DAC.

The clearest ground detail belongs to the 2022 Zweigelt Rosé, grown on deep, fertile loess. That site is paired with a short eight-hour period of press contact, drawing colour and berry character from 100% Zweigelt before the wine goes to stainless steel.

Story

Christian Nastl returned to the family estate after periods in Germany, the United States and New Zealand. He now takes responsibility for the cellar, bringing those years abroad into a winery whose family record begins in seventeenth-century Langenlois. The result is not a break with the estate’s past, but a present-day cellar run by a family member who has seen vineyards and wineries beyond Kamptal.

The family’s history and its Heuriger meet in the same town: a documented winegrowing record from 1656, and a restaurant setting that has been serving for more than six decades. That continuity keeps the estate’s wines tied to Langenlois both as bottled agriculture and as something poured with food.

Vineyards And Cellar

Günter and Christian Nastl jointly work the vineyards, while Christian receives the fruit in a three-storey cellar designed to let grapes move by gravity. Stainless-steel tanks occupy the upper level, with passages leading onward to a wooden-barrel cellar and vinotheque described as 300 years old. The building gives steel-fermented wines such as the Zweigelt Rosé a direct route from fruit handling to lees ageing, while retaining space for barrel work.

Nastl has held Nachhaltig Österreich certification since 2016. Falstaff classifies the 12 hectares as conventionally farmed, so the useful description is certified sustainable practice within conventional farming, rather than an organic or biodynamic claim.

Wines

The published range has four working names. NastlFruchtig is the fruit-led section and includes the documented Zweigelt Rosé; NastlKamptalDAC contains wines carrying the Kamptal regional designation; NastlExklusiv and NastlRot complete the estate’s named offer. Together they move between fresh, early-drinking fruit expression and wines defined by regional designation or red-wine focus.

Above that structure sits Gigant, a reserve category containing Grüner Veltliner, Riesling and Zweigelt. It gives the estate a place for three grapes in more concentrated reserve bottlings, while the rosé shows what happens when Zweigelt is picked and handled for a lighter-bodied, stainless-steel-raised wine instead of a red.

In The Glass

The 2023 Zweigelt Rosé opens with meadow herbs, orange peel, red wild strawberry and floral notes. On the palate it is juicy, with fine acidity, a small amount of residual sweetness at 3 g/l and mineral detail; the combination keeps the red-fruit flavour bright rather than confectionary. Three months in stainless steel preserves that direct fruit and herb profile, while the finish has more weight than a simple poolside rosé.

The 2022 bottling follows a related but separately documented path: raspberry, strawberry and sweet cherry over refreshing acidity. Eight hours of press contact and fermentation in steel at 18°C give the wine its rosé shape, while ageing on fine lees adds texture after the fruit has been pressed away from the skins.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Nastl Zweigelt Rosé, preferably a vintage for which the estate’s technical details are available. It is 100% Zweigelt from deep, fertile loess, with eight hours of press contact, stainless-steel fermentation and fine-lees ageing. Expect raspberry, strawberry and sweet cherry, carried by refreshing acidity and a light, juicy body. It comes first because it makes the cellar choices easy to taste: short skin contact supplies the rosé character, steel keeps the fruit clear, and lees add a little breadth to the finish.

Anecdote

Before taking charge of the family cellar in Langenlois, Christian Nastl spent time in Germany, the United States and New Zealand. He then returned to the estate where the Nastl family’s winegrowing history had first been documented in 1656. Today his father Günter works with him in the vineyards, while Christian is responsible for the cellar. The winery describes those years abroad as the foundation of Christian’s wine style, so bottles from a long-established Langenlois family estate pass through a cellar directed by someone who had worked in three very different wine countries before coming home.

Final Word

Nastl is most tangible through the contrast between its family record and its working details: named Langenlois sites, a gravity-flow cellar, and Zweigelt Rosé made with measured skin contact, steel and fine lees. The rosé offers the clearest first taste of how those decisions turn vineyard fruit into a bottle.

Sources

• https://nastl.at/
• https://nastl.at/weingut/
• https://nastl.at/familie/
• https://nastl.at/heuriger/
• https://www.falstaff.com/en/wineries/weingut-nastl
• https://nastl.at/shop/zweigelt-rose-2022/?lang=en
• https://www.falstaff.com/en/wines/weingut-christian-nastl-2023-zweigelt-rose
• https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/5735801/