Viniculture has a long tradition in the Nigl family. For centuries, up to 1990, they have made wine, always linked to agriculture. Since 1990, the family has dedicated itself entirely to the process of winemaking.
This happened despite the 1980s, which were anything but rosy for the Austrian wine culture. During this time the focus was more on large quantities and less attention was paid to quality. Many wineries were forced to give up producing wines.
Martin Nigl has always been convinced that quality winegrowing is the future. "On our steep locations, you can only survive with top quality." For this reason, numerous terraced areas in the Senftenberg Piri location, some of which had been abandoned for decades, were recultivated and planted with Riesling.
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A milestone in the development of the winery was the 1988 Riesling from the Hochäcker-location at Senftenberg. At the time it ended up in the front ranks of a German-Austrian comparative tasting and thus bringing a completely unknown winery and wine growing area under the attention of wine lovers.
In 1995, large parts of the Starhemberg winery were taken over, including a reading court from the 12th century (our “Weinhaus”). Since then, the vineyard locations of Pellingen and Kirchenberg, next to Hochäcker, which has always been run by the family, form the heart of the winery.
While Josef Nigl was still cutting the vines in Starnberg's winery and was entrusted with the care of the natural stone walls, the Nigl family now continues the 800-year-old winemaking tradition of the house. In 1999 we were able to expand with the Goldberg and Zwetl vineyards at Rehberg. At Goldberg the terraces had to be recreated through painstaking manual labour and planted with Riesling.
From 2003 to 2004, the dilapidated building under the Burgruine Senftenberg was restored and a hotel with 12 guest rooms and a small restaurant was built.
Until 2016, the restaurant was run by staff. In 2017, it was time for the trained restaurateur Bertram Nigl to return home, after several years of travelling, and take over the gastronomy business.
Martin Nigl
"The trick is to create a perfectly balanced wine, bringing everything from the vineyard unscathed to the bottle: fruit, finesse, elegance, density and minerality."