Umathum

The Umathum vineyard is located in the village of Frauenkirchen, east of Lake Neusiedl, near the Hungarian border. Josef Umathum has 50 hectares of vineyards, half of which are in Frauenkirchen and the other half in Neusiedl/Jois. 75% of his vineyards are planted with red grapes. He attaches particular value to the indigenous Austrian grape varieties. Zweigelt is his most important grape variety with more than 30%, followed by St. Laurent (20%) and Blaufränkisch (20%). He also has several regional white grape varieties planted.

Organic viticulture
Josef Umathum is a passionate winemaker who attaches great value to organic viticulture. Since the 1970s, this vineyard has been increasing the biological variety of plants in the vineyard and Josef has stopped using herbicides and insecticides.

Elegant, with lots of fruit and finesse
Umathum makes wines with a very recognizable style. His wines are – even at high concentrations – always extremely elegant, with lots of fruit and finesse. His philosophy is to preserve the terroir as distinctly as possible in the wines. In addition to the biological-organic cultivation of the soil, a conscious reduction of the harvest quantities and the manual harvesting and selection of the grapes also play a major role.

Top Austrian red wines
Since his famous vintages of 1986 and 1987, Umathum has been among the absolute top in the field of red wines in Austria. He gained international fame when his St. Laurent vom Stein 92 was awarded the coveted ‘Burgundy Style Trophy’ by the ‘International Wine Challenge’, leaving several top houses from Burgundy behind. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate has already awarded the Zweigelt 90 points. Umathum has also received a Decanter Gold Medal.