Laissez-Faire 2021 - Christian Tschida (vin nature)

Laissez-Faire: just let it go. 'Controlled' doing nothing during fermentation and still making a pure white wine. Sounds like Christian might be letting things go, but nothing could be further from the truth. This Austrian Riesling from a single vineyard plot clearly shows why Tschida is the greatness in natural wine. Very special balance between minerality, power, oxidation and complexity with aromas of lime, grapefruit, mirabelles, apricots and a salty aftertaste.

To produce wine of such quality, without human intervention, requires an enormous amount of knowledge, experience and talent.

And the great thing is, you, on the other hand, can just let it happen to you.

• Country / Region: Austria / Neusiedlersee (Burgenland)
• Grape variety(ies): 100% Riesling
• In the vineyard: Grapes harvested by hand. Grapes from 45 year old vines. Single vineyard plot. Biodynamic farming.
• In the wine cellar: Grapes are completely destemmed and stamped with bare feet. Slow, spontaneous fermentation in large wooden barrels. Two years of maturation in large Stockinger barrels (light oak, high-quality Austrian barrels). Without added sulphites, unfiltered.
• Quality mark: Biodynamic and Vin Nature

Christian Tschida is one of the biggest rock stars in Vin Nature at the moment. Restaurant Noma in Copenhagen has been serving Tschida wines in its wine pairings for years. Even now with the huge increase in high-end restaurants and the increasing supply of high-quality natural wines, Tschida remains number one. Because many natural wine lovers see Christian Tschida as a kind of demigod, his cult status is only growing. Even sommeliers in Austria have to make an effort for his wines.

The most remarkable thing about Tschida is that he uses 30% of the 'free run'. This gives his wines a particularly elegant character, very pure and sometimes even light.

The Tschida family has been making wine in Illmitz (Neusiedlersee) since the 19th century and Christian still works some of these old family vineyards. When Christian took over the family estate in 2003, many former customers found his way of making wine ridiculous. Low in alcohol and too high in minerality and juiciness. Fortunately, his wine was selected by a large local bank, who served it at their stylish business lunches. Funny enough, only because they didn't want the executives to get drunk. Funny or not, Tschida is now part of the canon of vin nature, not only in Austria, but throughout the Western Hemisphere.