Collection: Weingut Werlitsch

In 2004, Ewald Tscheppe and his brother Andreas took over their father’s vineyards in Leutschach, near the Slovenian border. The landscape here is strikingly diverse and almost untouched, nature feels vivid and immediate. Vines have been cultivated since Roman times on the region’s chalky marl (Kalkmergel) and clay-rich alluvial Opok soils. The hallmark varieties are Morillon, essentially the local expression of Chardonnay and some of the oldest Sauvignon Blanc plantings in the world outside France.

Working side by side, Ewald and Andreas soon recognized just how profoundly the human hand shapes a wine: despite farming the same vineyards, they produced remarkably different results. In time, Andreas established his own estate on the other side of the hill, though the brothers have continued to share tools, knowledge, and experience ever since.

Ewald’s philosophy is perhaps best expressed through his emblematic “Ex Vero” series. “Ex Vero” means honest and true.

Ewald farms his eight hectares deeply committed to biodynamics with a strict non-interventionist approach. He has been Demeter-certified since 2008. In the cellar, the wines are handled gently before fermenting in large, old, Alsatian-style oak casks, where they age on their lees for a minimum of 22 months. In recent years, he has also begun experimenting with smaller, more radical batches fermented on the skins. The wines are bottled unfined, with only a minimal amount of fine lees, and without the addition of sulfur.