If the natural wine movement can be seen as a revival of traditional agricultural and viticultural techniques, itโ€™s fitting that Gut Oggau, one of Austriaโ€™s most high-profile natural wine domaines, offers its own take on one of Austriaโ€™s most cherished wine traditions: heuriger.

โ€œA heuriger is hard to translate, but probably best put as wine tavern,โ€ says Stephanie Tscheppe-Eselbรถck, who owns Gut Oggau with her husband Eduard Tscheppe. โ€œItโ€™s an ancient tradition, dating back to the end of the 18th century.โ€

Something akin to a wine-centric version of Germanyโ€™s biergartens, heuriger offers oenophiles a chance to enjoy a new vintage in the very place it was made. Although little known outside of Austria, the tradition continues to be widely popularโ€”perhaps not surprising considering per capita wine consumption in Austria is almost triple Americaโ€™s. But the wine consumed at most heurigers tends to be of the conventional, mass-produced variety, which makes Gut Oggauโ€™s heuriger all the more remarkable.

โ€œVineyards are allowed to open their doors on a seasonal approach and serve local food with their wine,โ€ Tscheppe-Eselbรถck says. In the case of Gut Oggauโ€™s heuriger, this means inviting guests to their winery, located in the middle of Oggau, a small village in Austriaโ€™s Burgenland region.

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Eduard Tscheppe and Stephanie Tscheppe-Eselbรถck

In the natural wine world, itโ€™s hard to find a more celebratedโ€”or Instagrammedโ€”winery than Gut Oggau. Their story is familiar to many natural wine drinkers but bears repeating. Tscheppe, the son of wine producers in Austriaโ€™s Tyrol region, and his wife Tscheppe-Eselbรถck, the daughter of Michelin-starred restauranteurs, bought an abandoned winery in Tscheppe-Eselbรถckโ€™s native Burgenland region, releasing their first vintage in 2007. Taking over the estate meant inheriting old vines, some now more than 60 years old.

Rather than focusing on variety, Gut Oggauโ€™s different cuvรฉes are blended according to vineyard sites. Tscheppe and Tscheppe-Eselbรถck created a different character for each cuvรฉe, illustrated by the artist Jung von Matt. Whether itโ€™s the โ€œyoung and attractiveโ€ Atanasius or the โ€œstrong and resoluteโ€ Mechthild, each character is designed to represent the personality of that wine. The family is divided into three generations: the mature and refined older generation, the strong and bold middle generation, and the youthful and energetic younger generation.

Although their branding is contemporary, Gut Oggauโ€™s vinification techniques couldnโ€™t be more traditional. The Demeter-certified estate is fully biodynamic. In the cellar, grapes undergo spontaneous fermentation with their native yeast. The โ€œolder generationโ€ cuvรฉes are pressed with a restored 200-year-old screw press. All of their wines, even their whites, are bottled unfined, unfiltered, and without the addition of sulfur.

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“Theodora”, a white from Gut Oggau’s “younger generation.”

The unlikely convergence of such unadulterated winemaking and impeccable branding has created a cult following around the world. Indeed, Gut Oggauโ€™s wines are something of a shibboleth. Whether on the shelf or behind a bar, those distinctive faces have encouraged me to take a chance on an unknown wine shop or bar.

The popularity of Gut Oggauโ€™s wines makes the approachability of their heuriger all the more surprising. Unlike the massive wine corporations that offer the public tastings and tours at visitor centers, most natural winemakers are small operations, often with no full-time employees. Those that accept guests are typically by appointment only. But if the stereotypical natural winemaker is the reclusive hermit, eschewing modern technology and society, Tscheppe and Tscheppe-Eselbรถck are the budding extroverts.

โ€œSince we both love to host, it was obvious we would open our doors during vegetation season,โ€ says Tscheppe-Eselbรถck.

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Oggau is an hourโ€™s drive from Viennaโ€”slightly longer if one takes the commuter train, followed by a local bus, as I discovered firsthand. For me, the extra travel time is worth being able to stare out the train window and watch as Viennaโ€™s neoclassical apartment blocks give way to idyllic farmland. The gentle slopes are marked with orderly rows of trellises that give the landscape a sense of precision. This is gorgeous countryside, swarming with cyclists taking advantage of the regionโ€™s extensive bike trails. Burgenland is also famous for Lake Neusiedl, a national park that attracts birdwatchers from around the world due to its biological diversity. Oggau is one of several towns that surround the lake.

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When I arrive with my family, Tscheppe-Eselbรถck and Tscheppe are busily bussing tables between greeting guests. Itโ€™s a holiday in Austriaโ€”Whit Mondayโ€”and clearly weโ€™re not the only ones whoโ€™ve decided to enjoy the day in wine country.

Tscheppe is tall with tousled hair and a warm smile. A billowy white linen shirt hangs impressively from his broad frame. Tscheppe-Eselbรถck is tall and slim; she wears large sunglasses and a green-and-white-striped blouse that serves to highlight her brilliant red hair. They both exude a certain energyโ€”a hospitality that feels disarmingly authentic.

Before we visit, I am nervous about bringing my children. Iโ€™ve been to my fair share of wine bars and wine-driven restaurants. Itโ€™s safe to say theyโ€™re not the sort of places one can get a high chair. But when I ask ahead, Tscheppe-Eselbรถck replies, โ€œOf course the next generation is welcome.โ€ Whether the response was an illusion to the generational theme of their wines or simply a reflection of the fact that Tscheppe and Tscheppe-Eselbรถck are also parents, we quickly discover in Austria, heuriger is a family affair.

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As weโ€™re shown to our tableโ€”a large, weather-worn farmhouse table we share with another coupleโ€”I notice weโ€™re far from the only family there. Before we even sit down, my children make a beeline for the farm animals: chickens and sheep that share the courtyard with diners. Other children sit at a kid-sized picnic table, drawing on Gut Oggau-branded coloring pages. It occurs to me that more wine taverns should have play places.

Our food quickly arrives, and Iโ€™m only able to corral my children with the promise of fresh grape juice, which comes chilled in a small decanter. It is unquestionably the fanciest juice my kids have ever consumed.

The food at Gut Oggauโ€™s heuriger is a fixed spread with optional add-ons. It comes on three-tiered platters in generous portions.

โ€œThe food is meant to be served cold, basic stuff like cheese, charcuterie, vegetables, and the like,โ€ says Tscheppe-Eselbรถck.

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From my perspective, however, the menu at Gut Oggauโ€™s heuriger is anything but basic: fresh and pickled vegetables, local cheeses, charcuterie, egg salad, and spicy sausages. Coupled with fresh loaves of sourdough bread and local butter, this is a heuriger you can come hungry to.

โ€œThe menu is always changing according to seasons and availability. All the dishes are served very purely after having sourced the best possible produce or growing them ourselves,โ€ says Tscheppe-Eselbรถck. โ€œThe menu is based on mainly Mangalitza pig, the typical breed of the region.โ€

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As impressive as the spread is: itโ€™s, of course, the wine that takes center stage. Gut Oggauโ€™s heuriger offers a rare chance to taste almost their entire line-up by the glass, not to mention a few guest wines from friends. To those accustomed to paying standard restaurant markups, the prices are remarkably affordable. A glass of the โ€œyounger generationโ€ costs โ‚ฌ3.5. While the older generationโ€”wines youโ€™re unlikely to find by the glass elsewhereโ€”cost in the neighborhood of a typical glass pour at a high-end restaurant.

A particularly special cuvรฉe on the menu is the โ€œFamily Reunionโ€ 2016 rosรฉ. A difficult year in the vineyard left the crop decimated by frost and hail. Tscheppe and Tscheppe-Eselbรถck were forced to forgo their typical cuvรฉes and bottle three field blends: a white, red, and rosรฉ. The rosรฉ is a blend of what normally would be โ€œWinifredโ€ and โ€œJosephine,โ€ as reflected by the split face bottle. This blend of Zweigelt, Blaufrรคnkisch, and Roesler shows remarkable complexity and depth; the sort of serious rosรฉ to convert skeptics. Itโ€™s nonetheless refreshing and food-friendly, as any rosรฉ should be. The cuvรฉe embodies so much of what I, and many others, love about Gut Oggauโ€™s wines: worthy of reflection, but decidedly quaffable.

Gut Oggauโ€™s heuriger reflects this dynamic.

โ€œWe love to host guests and we are happy to give them an insight into our world of agriculture and farming as well as our philosophy in terms of biodynamics,โ€ says Tscheppe-Eselbรถck. โ€œBut in the end, it is just sharing some good times.โ€