Heinrich: beautiful naturally inclined wines from Austria’s Burgenland region
Heinrich is one of Austria’s most interesting producers. Based in Burgenland, they successfully negociated a style change in 2014 and now make a range of elegant, naturally inclined wines, including some wines with no additions at all.
I tasted this snapshot of their portfolio at the VinNatur event in Paris, November 2025, with Adam Juruc, who makes the wine alongside Gernot Heinrich.
For the full Heinrich story, see this earlier wineanorak article. [Note that because Austrian wine law is very strict and somewhat outdated, penalizing winegrowers who choose to work in a low intervention manner, many of these wines can’t put their region on the label, but I’ve described them as Burgenland, because that’s where they come from.]
Heinrich Oh When the Saints Pet Nat 2023 Burgenland, Austria
This is St Laurent picked in late August. It’s becoming hard to sell St Laurent as a red wine so this Pet Nat is a potential way to use it. Disgorged in January. Lively and bright with lovely citrus drive. Pure and vital with a grapefruit edge to it. 91/100
Heinrich Into the Light White Blaufrankisch 2023 Burgenland, Austria
This is made from free run juice. After 30 minutes in the press, the result is rosé, so this is effectively the first juice from the press, before the press cycle starts. Fermented in a mix of 1000 litre clay and Pauscha and Stockinger foudres. Nice apple, pear and peach fruit with good definition. A lovely direct wine, with some mineral reduction. 93/100
Heinrich Weysse Freiheit 2023 Burgenland, Austria
They are phasing out the clay bottle for this wine, with the exception of a few markets. It was Heinrich’s first zero zero wine (no additions at all). 80% Pinot Blanc, 20% Chardonnay, from Leithaberg, with both mica schist and limestone soils. Half the Pinot Blanc is skin fermented for two weeks, the rest is direct pressed. Clay and foudre for 18 months. Lively, bright and fresh with nice richness. Powerful and mineral, this has depth but also precision. It really works, with purity and energy. 95/100
Heinrich Naked Orange NV Burgenland, Austria
12.5% alcohol. This is their largest volume wine, with 50 000 bottles, representing 15% of production, and it’s brilliant. Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Muscat Ottonel and Roter Traminer, fermented on skins for an average of 2 weeks, some of the varieties co-fermented. Large wood and clay. It’s juicy and fine with hints of marmalade and table grapes. Really expressive and delicious. 93/100
Heinrich Roter Traminer Freyheit 2022 Burgenland, Austria
This one is in ceramic bottles, but most will now be bottled in regular glass. Two weeks on skins, 100% aged in clay, 14 months. Some colour here. Floral and expressive, this is lively and vivid with grapes, rose petals, orange peel. Nice tension with a touch of nice bitterness on the finish. 93/100
Heinrich Out of the Dark Blaufrankisch 2023 Burgenland, Austria
12.5% alcohol. Semi-carbonic, 100% whole bunch, just free run and first pressings. Clay amphora ageing. Pale in colour. Elegant, fresh and supple with red cherry and redcurrant fruit. Such lovely texture here: bright and vivid; juicy and fine. 94/100
Older notes from 2024:
These are the more classical red wines.
Heinrich Leithaberg Blaufrankisch 2019 Burgenland, Austria
13% alcohol. Striking aromatics with some spicy reduction showing: matchstick, smoke, tar and raspberry notes. The palate is vivid, rich and spicy with taut black cherry fruit, showing some crunchy raspberry brightness. Lovely density, but edgy and reductive, and quite unfurled, needing a bit of time to open up. Serious stuff, though. 94/100
Heinrich Ried Alterberg Leithaberg Blaufrankisch 2019 Burgenland, Austria
13.5% alcohol. Raised in amphora and 500 litre barrels. Very lively and complex with sweet blackcurrant fruit, some savoury chalk and gravel, with a strong mineral character showing. Nice gravelly intensity here with some grip. Subtle reductive notes add interest: beautiful density and focus: this is serious and potentially ageworthy. 95/100
Heinrich Ried Engelgraben Leithaberg Blaufränkisch 2019 Burgenland, Austria
13.5% alcohol. This spends 42 months in amphora and 500 litre barrels. Taut, focused and mineral with black fruits on the nose as well as gravel and chalk savouriness. Unfurled but arresting. The palate has lovely sweet black fruits with a sense of elegance and some raspberry and green apple brightness. Mineral and grainy with resolved tannins and a nice ghost of reduction. Such an interesting expression of this variety. 95/100
