Alexander Zahel

Weinviertel, Kamptal, Carnuntum

There is something wildly compelling about a winemaker choosing to begin again after already building something important.

Alexander Zahel completed his degree in Enology in 2005, worked two vintages abroad in New Zealand and Australia, and then returned home to Vienna to help develop his family estate alongside his uncle. Over nearly two decades, he became General Manager and shareholder, helped build the winery into an internationally recognized name, and pushed its farming further and further toward the future: organic in 2014, biodynamic in 2018, and finally Regenerative Organic Certified® (ROC™) in early 2024, making it the first regeneratively certified winery in Europe.

That alone would be a full story for most people.

But in July 2024, Alex and his wife Hilary stepped away from the family estate and started again. No vineyards. No cellar. No inherited winery infrastructure. Just relationships, experience, and the slightly terrifying freedom of beginning from zero. I love this part of the story because it feels both brave and completely practical. Alex had spent years building deep trust with growers, working in vineyards, understanding Austria’s many terroirs, and thinking seriously about how farming shapes wine. So rather than trying to recreate the traditional winery model overnight, he and Hilary looked to Burgundy’s micro-négoce tradition, a small, collaborative model built around partnerships with great growers and great sites.

The idea is simple, but not easy. Alex finds organically and regeneratively farmed vineyards, often with old vines of at least 35 years, and works closely with the growers from vineyard care through harvest, cellar work, and bottling. He is not just buying finished wine and putting a label on it. He is working with people he trusts, in places he believes in, helping to shape wines that speak clearly of their origins. And Hilary is very much the other half of the project. While Alex brings decades of vineyard and cellar knowledge, Hilary leads the design, marketing, and visual identity. The labels are hers, and they give the wines exactly the feeling the project itself has: thoughtful, personal, modern, and alive.

What makes this project compelling to me is not only the farming language- organic, biodynamic, regenerative, low intervention- though all of that matters. What makes it compelling is that Alex is taking those ideas and applying them in a deeply human, collaborative way. This is not wine as ego. It is wine as partnership.

The wines are made with the same sensitivity. Spontaneous fermentation only. No cultured yeasts. No fining. No filtration. Minimal sulphur. White wines often see a short period of skin contact, just enough to add texture and character without turning them into something heavy or performative. The goal is not to make “natural wine” as a category. The goal is to make wines that feel honest, detailed, balanced, and full of life.

And that is really the point. Alexander Zahel’s new project is not about owning every vineyard or controlling every piece of land. It is about finding the right people, the right vines, the right sites, and then bringing them together with care.

Austria is full of small, thoughtful growers who farm beautifully but do not always have the time, resources, or international reach to bring their wines to a wider audience. Alex and Hilary are creating a bridge for them. A platform, yes, but also something warmer than that: a circle of growers, vineyards, ideas, and bottles that might otherwise never travel as far as they deserve.

Their portfolio now has two sides: an Austrian micro-négoce series made in collaboration with growers close to home, and a small collection of carefully chosen imports. But the philosophy stays the same across both. The wines should be honest. They should have character. They should feel balanced and delicious. They should offer real value in the glass. And above all, they should belong on the table. Because for Alex and Hilary, wine is not just an agricultural product or a business model. It is a way of bringing people together. Friends, family, growers, partners, importers, strangers at a table with something good to eat.

Which leads me to my ultimate point: Alexander Zahel’s wines are not exciting because the project is new. They are exciting because the project has the rare feeling of someone starting over without losing any of the wisdom they earned along the way. These are wines made by people who clearly love vineyards, love food, love collaboration, and still believe that a bottle of wine can surprise you, delight you, and make the table feel a little more alive.

It is a pretty wonderful thing to represent.