Claus Preisinger Puszta Libre 2024

Claus Preisinger has made wine in Gols, on the north shore of Lake Neusiedl in Austria's Burgenland, since 2002, converting his vineyards and cellar to biodynamics in 2006 and earning Respekt-Biodyn certification. Puszta Libre is his own homage to good Beaujolais: 60 percent Zweigelt with 20 percent each of St. Laurent and Pinot Noir, drawn from vineyards around the lake on gravel and black earth. Most of the fruit is destemmed and fermented semi-carbonically while the rest goes in as whole clusters for carbonic maceration, all on native yeasts in steel, and the wine rests six months in tank before it is bottled unfiltered. Light and easy-drinking, it is the kind of red Preisinger himself says tastes more like a white. Puszta is the Hungarian name for the wide Pannonian plains, Libre is the attitude, and the label spells out the only rule: Gekühlt servieren, serve it chilled.