Authenticity, sustainability and typicity are not just buzzwords but principles by which Josef Högl and his son Georg make their wines in Spitz an der Donau in the Wachau. The speciality of the wines is the Spitzer Graben site, a side valley of the Danube valley and, at the same time, the westernmost and highest part of the Wachau, which stretches from the Waldviertel to Spitz. The Spitz Graben is fascinating not only because of the steepness of its rugged and stony soils but also because of its distinctly cold and inhospitable climate.
Högl's ten hectares of vineyards are all terraced with dry stone walls. The Schön vineyard alone comprises 57 terraces at an altitude of over 130 metres. The Högls' main grape varieties are Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. While the Schön site, with its mica slate soils, is ideal for Grüner Veltliner with depth and minerality, Riesling is grown on the steep stone terraces of the Bruck site, where granodiorite gneiss predominates.
Josef and Georg Högl's philosophy is that the finished wine should reflect the grapes, the soil, the mica slate and gneiss, the site and the character developed by the terroir. Precise and complex wines of the highest quality are created through consistent natural viticulture and the interplay of innovation and tradition. The purest grapes, hand-picked in multiple passages, form the basis of these wines. Högl's Smaragd wines are deep, complex, long-lived wines from old vines.
As a member of the Vinea Wachau Nobilis Districtus, the Högls are committed to the association's strict code of quality, which emphasises the origin, originality and character of the individual Wachau villages and sites.
