Kollwentz Chardonnay Leithakalk 2022 750ml

Kollwentz owns 25 hectares of prime vineyard land in the Leithaberg, one of the most venerable and historic growing regions in a country not lacking in them. Leithaberg sits on the Burgenland face of the Leitha Range, just west of the great Lake Neusiedl, a shallow body of water that plays a big role in the local climate. Vineyards close to the water live in a humid climate that promotes botrytis for the region’s celebrated sweet wines. But even vines like the Kollwenz’s far away in the hills benefit from the lake’s regulating effect—softening the cold, continental winters and buffering the heat of the Pannonian summers. Viticulture in this area is truly ancient. Some of the earliest examples of Central European viticulture come from the Leithaberg—grape seeds from around 700 B.C. have been collected. Chardonnay, which grows exceedingly well here and is a specialty of Kollwentz, has been cultivated in the area for 900 years, with the first vines brought from Burgundy by Cistercian monks around 1150. Chardonnay terroir here begins at the 200-meter mark and rises, as the combination of altitude and the forests that cover the highest Leithaberg elevations create a cool microclimate for the white grape. Red varieties tend to exist in the band between 170 and 200 meters of elevation. The Leithakalk vineyard is famous for its limestone soils, which vary between the shallow, extremely chalky ground in which Kollwentz grows Chardonnay to a darker calcareous soil that produces the Blaufränkisch. First mentioned in print in 1570, the Ried Katterstein vineyard stretches between 220 and 300 meters to the wooded crown of the hillside. Here many small parcels co-exist with stream beds, rocky outcroppings, and copses.