The Power Couple - Marion and Manfred are the couple behind Ebner-Ebenauer. The living embodiment of yin and yang – a wine power pairing of abject opposites. Is it in spite of or because of their polarity that their wines are so special?
Marion Ebner’s story..
Legend has it that by the age of 14 Marion Ebner was already enrolled in Krems prestigious wine school and that by 16 she was working as an intern for Fritz Wieninger in Stammersdorf. Such precocity could elicit rancour, but Marion is a spirited woman, a woman to drive revolutionary change. By 20 she was a fully-fledged négociant who was purchasing single vineyard grapes from the likes of Schloss Göbbelsburg and experimenting with oak aging – It was this wondrous experimentation that birthed her famed Melusine* Grüner Veltliner - to broad reaching international acclaim. Marion did not then bask in glory but left for NYC where she worked the floor as a Sommelier for 6 months. She then tried wine marketing for a year, then high powered gastronomy management before fate judiciously intervened and love struck.
*The Melusine is a fresh-water female spirit, a magical being, part mermaid, part nymph, part snake; a fairy of Northern folklore born of man and fey creature.
Manfred Ebenauer’s story..
Manfred Ebenauer was a student at Krems too. Not famous, not precocious but the scion of a 400-year-old winemaking family who had farmed 20 fascinatingly varied hectares in Poysdorf, lower Austria for fourteen generations. A border town and home to Austria’s oldest documented vineyard as well as many sparkling producers; Poysdorf is a place of myriad past conflicts and ancient gnarled mandrake-like vines. The Ebenauer winery was burnt to the ground in 1945. But Manfred’s Grandparents had a touch of the Melusine about them too – citizens of a new world who had studied in France and Italy before the war, they didn’t give up and they didn’t do dull. When they rebuilt, they rebuilt in style. Today’s Ebenauer Estate is part Tuscan, part Tolkein, part Austrian and part fairy tale.
Fates call..
Marion and Manfred fell in love and inherited the estate, as any good fairy-tale characters should. Their yin and yang match the seasonal ebb and flow of their wines – a perfect metaphor for life and nature; give and take – contrasting spirits, united in compromise with uncompromising nature. Their dichotomy is their strength, and their wines are reflective of this vibrant yet patient partnership. Low intervention, distinctively characterful and ready when they are ready, the vines at Ebner- Ebenauer (as it is now called) are organically or biodynamically farmed and vinified parcel by parcel using spontaneous fermentation.
About 80,000 bottles a year are produced, 70% is exported. Predominantly Grüner Veltliner vinified in a myriad of ways, they also make Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Blanc. The red wine production is from from Pinot Noir, Zweigelt and St. Laurent. Vines must be at least 30 years old to qualify for a single vineyard bottling at Ebner-Ebenauer and 50 for the old vine wines. They also make a sparkling, but you’d need to have magical powers to possess that…
Viticulture/Winemaking Style
Their vineyards are on average quite distinguished, with some vines over 60 years old and all farmed organically or biodynamically. Natural yeast is a given for all of their wines. The soil tends to be mostly dense Calcareous loam and loess, mixed with sand. Their Hermannsachern vineyard is unique, its clay soil laced with fossil limestone, creating that incredible mineral lift. Ebner-Ebenauer's house style is one of elegance and freshness, with superb intensity and grip married to bright fruit on the palate. The Grüner and Riesling are fermented and aged in tank, left on the lees for seven months and then bottled in late spring.
Grape Varieties
Gruner Veltliner, Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, St. Laurent
Fun Fact
Marion Ebner hates salad but loves raw meat, she would be working in fashion or food had she not been bitten by the wine bug.
