WILLKOMMEN – WELCOME

Dear friends, customers and partners

Old values – new paths. Wine has been pressed in our family for three generations. With boundless joy and deepest respect. 100 % Vulkanland Steiermark is our steadfast ideology: Only grapes from the Vulkanland Steiermark region are ever permitted into our cellars. Highest-quality wines with a distinctive personality and unambiguous origin are as much our goal as pure enjoyment with every sip.

Our product palette may be subdivided into three categories: regional wines, represented by elegant, multifaceted classics; profound wines drawn from single vineyards Stradener Rosenberg, Buch, Steintal and Altes Steinkreuz; and local wines as an expressive happy medium between both of the aforementioned categories.

We live and work in a particularly beautiful place and like to get to know friends of our wines personally. So if you want to visit us: Our farm shop and the newly designed inner courtyard offer plenty of space for carefree and enjoyable wine tastings.

Please register in advance so that we can arrange a nice place for you:
+43 676 9675181 / weingut at frauwallner dot com

Opening times: Mon – Sat: 9 am to 12pm and 1 to 6 pm

You are also welcome to place orders using this contact information.

Price list request: weingut at frauwallner dot com

To a happy and healthy reunion!

Petra & Walter + Emmi & Willi Frauwallner

 

 

 

Value & Basis

This axiom may be overused, however the statement it makes is the most important component of our philosophy: “Quality grows in the vineyard.” Our preferred partners: brainwork and sensitive-yet-stalwart physical skill and effort. 

Our wines come from the Buch, Stradener Rosenberg, Steintal and Altes Steinkreuz vineyards. Painstaking work by hand, an unerring focus on quality during vine maintenance and grape selection at harvest time: all a matter of course for us. Determining the ideal moment as we work in the vineyards requires a combination of gut instinct, knowledge and experience. 

Quality grows in the vineyard – though only if you give it the best support possible.

More space for time

Through manual labor, unabashed craftsmanship and finely tuned cellaring techniques, quality is brought from the vineyard to the bottle. Skill, experience, trust and time, such as prolonged exposure to the yeast, are indispensable for more demanding wines. Thanks to the cellar we built in 2008, in the middle of the Buch vineyard we have gained more space for steel tanks and oak casks and thus “more space for time”.

This also means that we can now perform our basic work with an even greater focus on quality. Short distances from vine to cellar enable us to process our harvest quickly. Until final pressing, the natural power of gravity negates the need for pumps, which substantially improves the quality of our wines.

 

Wine Categories

REGIONAL WINES – GEBIETSWEINE
STEIERMARK UND VULKANLAND STEIERMARK DAC
Wines from different vineyards across Vulkanland Steiermark, allowed to develop classically in steel tanks. Fruity, elegant and multifaceted.

LOCAL WINES – ORTSWEINE
Wines grown on younger vines in vineyards within the municipal limits of Straden. Fruity, elegant, yet an expressive »middle ground« between wines classically matured in steel tanks and “Riedenweine”. Available from 1 May in the year following harvest.

SINGLE-VINEYARD WINES - RIEDENWEINE
Vineyards Stradener Rosenberg, Buch, Steintal, Altes Steinkreuz provide the basis for minerally, profound, great wines – authentic ambassadors of their home terroir. 

Große STK-Ried / Grand Cru STK:
Ried Buch
1. STK-Ried / Premier Cru STK:
Ried Stradener Rosenberg
STK Ried / STK vineyard:
Ried Steintal und Ried Altes Steinkreuz.

ALTERNATIVELY PRODUCED WINES 
"Straden Privat": A white wine fermented on the mash.

Hand in Hand

The foundation stone for today’s winery was laid on the farm of Walter’s grandparents Hilda and Josef Ruckenstuhl, where they maintained a small vineyard solely to meet their own needs. Today, the second generation of vintners lends a helping hand whenever the third generation, which is now in charge, needs a little extra support.

WALTER FRAUWALLNER
Since Walter took over responsibility for his parent’s wine cellar in 2002 (at age 21), this segment of their mixed farming business has developed into one of the best wineries in Styria. 
GOALS & VALUES: Every year and without compromise, produce wines of distinctive origin that bring great joy to customers.

PETRA FRAUWALLNER
After switching careers (a registered nurse in addition to mother of their two sons, Felix and Fabian), Petra supports her husband Walter in various areas of the business, including wine tastings and clerical duties. Through their partnership and her involvement with the business, her love for wine has grown over the years; also reflected in her training as a sommelière. 
GOALS & VALUES: Joy in everything she does, family through and through, independence and autonomy.

EMMI FRAUWALLNER
Emmi is the initial point of contact for winery-direct sales and has eagerly served customers for many years. Her cheerful attitude and experience are much appreciated. 
GOALS & VALUES: Health & cheerfulness, good family climate, assist the family with their work at the winery.

WILLI FRAUWALLNER Sr.
Willi is an oasis of calm within the family, lending a hand where he’s needed and always open to implementing new ideas in the vineyards, cellars and sales rooms. 
GOALS & VALUES: Quality of life, »composure in all situations«.

WILLI FRAUWALLNER Jr.
Walter’s older brother runs Restaurant Willis in Bad Waltersdorf and occasionally assists the winery with presentations. As a trained sommelier and wine aficionado, he is often on the road on an »oenological mission«.

Milestones

2002
Walter Frauwallner takes over the reins of the wine cellar of his parents’ mixed farming operation, his goal being to transform this sideline business into a full-fledged winery. Initiated by Emmi Frauwallner, 12 winegrowers from the Steirisches Vulkanland joined forces to create the “Eruption” label for quality wines.

2003 
First major press coverage: As the first journalist with nationwide readership, gourmet critic and gastrosopher Christoph Wagner reports about the winery. 

2006 
The whole family is thrilled about their first provincial champion wine (Morillon). Many more, not mentioned here, would follow (…)

2008
In the middle of our Buch vineyard, we build our new, functional cellar. The Austrian Guide Gault Millau names Walter their Wine Talent of the Year (Morillon Ried Buch, »Eruption weiß«, 2006)

2011 
awc international wine challenge vienna: Ernennung zum 3-Sterne Weingut. Diese Höchstnote erhielten nur 27 von 1784 internationalen Winzern. 

2014
Winery of the Year in Styria. 

2016 
Walter and Petra take over the winery.

2017 
Winery of the Year in Styria. 

2018
Winery of the Year in Styria. 
Joined the group Steirische Terroir- & Klassikwinzer (STK).