NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK 🏃

Hiya winos!

I’ve been shopping. Again. It is not a good idea to let me loose on an industry tasting at 10.30 a.m. on a Monday, my eyes are still closed. I’m still asleep. I’ll buy anything. Kidding! What I bought is not just anything. It’s special. Two hot new producers for you, are you ready?

I tend to get a bit touchy when people younger than me have achieved things I want to do – you know, millennial women who publish the seminal navel-gazing novel at 26, New York trust fund brats who purchase a Brooklyn brownstone at 24, etc. But I’ll make an exception for Christoph Heiss, the 29-year-old winemaker behind Malinga. Side note – Malinga makes me think of that Sri Lankan cricket player Malinga ‘the Slinger’ who was always getting in trouble for his semi-illegal bowling style. Lol, remembering when I used to pretend to be interested in sports so I had something to talk about with my dad. Apparently there’s some cricket on now? Idk. Anyway. The Malinga project began in 2013 when Christoph took over his family’s winery in Kamptal, Austria. In his training days, Christoph worked in South Africa with Craig Hawkins of Testalonga and Jurgen Gouws of Intellego, which solidified his love of natural winemaking. He only vinifies around 0.5 hectares of his family’s total 12 for the Malinga label, so you know he’s only using the best stuff. And we in turn only offer you guys the best stuff. So! For your drinking pleasure, we’ve got a silky, textured Grüner Veltliner, a bright, clean Riesling and a super interesting Zweigelt rosé, sour-fruited and savoury and just straight-up delicious.

Hot new producer #2 are the Schödl Family, aka Mathias, Viktoria and Leonhard, three siblings making minimal intervention wines in Weinviertel, an area of Austria normally known for making mass-production wines of, um, dubious quality. Enter the Schödls! Their wines are fresh, vibrant and most of all FUN, probs because they’re also really young, just out here in the world achieving stuff. More power to ‘em – I worked with my sister for one (1) summer at a disgustingly greasy caff when we were teenagers and it took until about last week for our relationship to recover, so kudos to the Schödls for not killing each other. I’m bringing you their Pét-Nat, juicy and citrusy just how I like them, their Rosé Supernova, a blend of the best fruit from their Pinot Noir and Sankt Laurent vineyards which is delicate and punchy at the same time, and their Bloody Muscat, a banging skin contact wine made from Roter Muskateller. Who? I know, right, but it makes the wine this gorgeous pinky colour, so I guess I’ll learn how to pronounce it, if I have to. These are all excellent, excellent barbeque wines, or wines to drink while playing Catan in your garden with your housemates like I did last night. 100% recommend (I also have a 100% win rate, which is probably why they don’t ever want to play it with me and why I have to ply them with wine to do so).

One final new drop before I head off – another Pét-Nat, coz I can’t get enough. This one’s from Marto – who also make a delicious skin contact wine that’s just come back in stock, lucky you – and it’s a blend of Huxelrebe, Müller Thurgauer and Würzer (ffs, Germany, give us a break with the names already). It’s suuuuper fresh, tart, zingy, aromatic, other adjectives. Snap one (or two or three) up here.

Have a good one, friends!

Xoxo

Megan