Thanks to the favorable climate and the subsoil of slate and limestone, high-quality grapes grow here, the processing of which has been supervised since last year by the young Austrian winegrower Stefan Tscheppe.
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However, the bottles quickly disappear from the cellars not only because of the specific taste of the local production, but also because Liechtenstein wine is a rarity. Therefore, virtually none of the visitors of the small Alpine monarchy can resist shopping.
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Herawingert Vineyard is basically the only major Liechtenstein vineyard and its owners claim that it is one of the best vineyards in the Rhine Valley. Pinot noir is grown on 90 percent of the area, the remaining tenth is made up of chardonnay shrubs. Shrub care and harvesting is done exclusively by hand.
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Millennials are looking for new small wineries that have their own unmistakable style.
Stefan Tscheppe
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Although the princely winery (Hofkellerei) sometimes buys grapes from small growers who have a few rows of vines in the garden behind the house, the local harvest is enough for a maximum of 20 to 25 thousand bottles of wine a year.
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Several thousand bottles of white chardonnay will sell out in a few months, although prices range from about 20 to 50 Swiss francs (about 500 to 1200 crowns).
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A much larger part of the princely winery is located in neighboring Austria, where 35 hectares of vineyards are farmed in Wilfersdorf, which belongs to the famous Weinviertel wine region on the border with the Czech Republic. Veltlin greens are grown there, but also Riesling, Traminer, Merlot or Zweigeltrebe, the local guide describes before tasting.
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Interest is growing among young people
The tradition of Austrian vineyards dates back to 1436 and is very much connected with the long history of the Liechtenstein family in Moravia. Before 1945, when the family lost all its property in Czechoslovakia on the basis of Beneš’s decrees, the princely family had the largest part of the vineyards on their settlement estate in Valtice.
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“I am convinced that the princely cellars would be viable, even if we only had Liechtenstein grapes, because there is a huge interest in these wines. But without Wilfersdorf, we would have sold out quickly every year, ”said Tscheppe.
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Although only a small part of the production, which totals around 140,000 bottles a year, is exported to the USA and Asian countries, such as Japan and Singapore, young wine connoisseurs from all over the world are increasingly interested in Liechtenstein.
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“Millennials are looking for new small wineries that have their own unmistakable style,” explains part of the success of the head of the princely cellars, who spent seven years in California and until recently worked in the winery of the noble Esterházy family.
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There is room for growth
Tscheppe runs the winery in tandem with the chief sommelier Princess Maria, who is the wife of Prince Constantine, the youngest son of the reigning Liechtenstein prince Hans Adam II.
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Marie comes from the Hungarian aristocratic family Kálnoky de Köröspatak and in the company she mainly takes care of the promotion, which is needed a little more this year due to the coronavirus pandemic than in previous years. Tscheppe estimates that due to the forced closure of the cellar and the huge loss of tourists, the winery lost about 30 percent of sales.
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“We are thinking about where we would like to go in the future and what wines we would like to produce. And we also deal with how to manage vineyards in a way that would further increase the quality of wines and gain them an international reputation. The wines are already very good, but there is still room for growth, ”concluded the main winegrower in an interview with Liechtensteiner Vaterland.
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