Eduard Tscheppe and Stephanie Tscheppe-Eselböck farm 20 hectares of vines at Gut Oggau, in Austria’s Burgenland. They work with old vines and are Demeter-certified biodynamic growers, making wines with minimal intervention.
They bought the historic estate in Oggau in 2007, after its previous owner had gone a decade without making wine. With few models to follow, the couple set out to restore the vineyards as gently as possible and let the wines express their origins without a polished, standardized style.
For Eduard, wine brings together a particular place and moment in time. Their aim is not simply to describe how a wine tastes, but to consider what it makes people feel. Biodynamic farming, he says, recognizes the relationship between the soil, the wider environment and the life sustained by both.
In the vineyards, Gut Oggau encourages biodiversity by planting trees, bushes and herbs, and maintaining cover crops. This reduces yields but, they believe, improves resilience and grape quality. The estate’s wines are presented as a family of fictional personalities: each has a name, a backstory and a distinctive face on its label.
The winemaking follows the same non-interventionist approach across red and white grapes. Whites may ferment on their skins, while red wines are made with less maceration than a conventional full extraction. Many wines combine skin contact with direct pressing. Sulfites are used only shortly before bottling.
The wines are aged in Austrian oak barrels made by Stockinger, using wood that has been seasoned outdoors for more than five years. The couple considered using Georgian qvevri after visiting Georgia, but decided the vessels belonged in their place of origin. They also avoid stainless steel for ageing, reserving it mainly for holding blends before bottling.
Rather than label a vintage good or bad, Eduard asks how much work it takes to grow balanced grapes under that year’s conditions. Humid seasons bring physical challenges; hot, dry ones are mentally demanding. The estate embraces each vintage as it comes.
Looking ahead, Gut Oggau plans to plant only mildew-resistant hybrid varieties. Repeated vineyard treatments can compact the soil, and the couple see resistant grapes as a way to reduce that pressure. The varieties they are choosing combine Austrian grape genetics with improved tolerance to mildew. Eduard argues that grafting them onto rootstocks preserves the vines’ connection to the soil.
The wines come from vineyards at different elevations, arranged into generations: younger-vineyard wines from flatter ground around 120 metres, and older-generation wines from hillside sites reaching 300 metres.
Wines tasted
- Gut Oggau Anastasius 2025, Burgenland — From seven parcels on gravel and limestone. Supple, with red cherry and raspberry, stony notes, vivid redcurrant and a savoury edge. 93/100
- Gut Oggau Theodora 2023, Burgenland — A youthful, substantial wine from gravel soils, with honey, dried grass, lemon, wet stone and spice. Textural and tense, with a hint of ripe apple. 94/100
- Gut Oggau Timotheus 2023, Burgenland — From limestone and slate. Powerful and concentrated, with pear and white peach, structure and a harmonious finish. 95/100
- Gut Oggau Emmeram 2022, Burgenland — A rare single-variety wine made from Gewürztraminer grown on limestone. Aromatic, fresh and layered, with pear, white peach, spice, dried herbs, chalk and a little grip. 94/100
- Gut Oggau Cecilia 2023, Burgenland — A co-fermented blend from a southeast-facing limestone site, with two-thirds white and one-third red grapes. Pink in colour, energetic and focused, with lime, cherry, cranberry and fine-grained structure. 95/100
- Gut Oggau Josephine 2021, Burgenland — From warm, south-facing vineyards acquired in 2011, where Roesler is the main grape. Fresh and lively, with chalky minerality, raspberry and blackcurrant. 94/100
- Gut Oggau Joschauri 2021, Burgenland — From stony soils at 300 metres. Elegant and expressive, with floral notes, red cherry and redcurrant, good intensity and a fine line of acidity. 95/100
- Gut Oggau Mechtild 2022, Burgenland — From the estate’s oldest vineyards, over 70 years old, on limestone and schist. Whole-cluster fermented and pressed in a restored beam press. Fresh, complex and harmonious, with orange peel, ripe pear, tannin and fine detail. 96/100
- Gut Oggau Bertholdi 2019, Burgenland — Grüner Veltliner and Blaufränkisch, pressed in the old beam press. Tense and focused, with cherry, raspberry, redcurrant and wet stone, carried by bright acidity. 96/100
Visit Gut Oggau or find its wines in the UK through Dynamic Vines.