Irene and Josef Fritz have been running the Fritz winery in Zaußenberg near Königsbrunn am Wagram since 2003 - today with a total of 16 hectares of vineyards - and the winery has also been a member of "Traditionsweingüter Österreich" since 2020. The Mordthal, Himmelreich, Steinberg and Schlossberg sites with soils of loess, tertiary gravel and sandstone offer the best conditions for the grape varieties Roter and Grüner Veltliner, Roter Traminer, Pinot Blanc and Riesling as well as Blauer Zweigelt and St. Laurent together with the mild climate of the region.
Ecological balance is the be-all and end-all in the vineyards, so that the rich diversity of an untouched natural environment is preserved for the future. For this reason, Irene and Josef Fritz limit themselves to minimal plant protection as part of the conversion to organic viticulture. Wine is understood here as the sum of man, nature and the cultivated landscape of the vineyard. Only absolutely ripe and clean grapes make it into the cellar. This requires rigorous selection in the vineyard and careful harvesting by hand. The white wines are fermented cleanly and cool in stainless steel tanks to preserve their fresh and fruity aroma and, after the first racking, are stored in the climatically ideal cellar built into the loess. The lighter wines are stored in stainless steel tanks until bottling, the single-vineyard wines in wooden barrels.
The restaurant "Josefs Himmelreich", named after a Zaußenberg vineyard - and also after the winemaker - has been open since 2019. Since last year, Marco Gangl from Western Styria, who trained at Landhaus Bacher and the Swedish three-star restaurant Frantzén, has been providing culinary highlights there.
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