Location: Zellerndorf, Weinviertel
Hectares: 9 (plus 170 of mixed agriculture)
Farming: Certified organic
Winemaking: Certified organic, aging in a variety of vessels from stainless to barrique, minimal sulfur additions (some wines with zero sulfur added)

There’s something very exciting happening in the Western Weinviertel, the part of Lower Austria that borders Czechia to the north and pulls in the cooling winds of the (non-wine growing) Waldviertel region further west. Here, in three small villages, we’ve found a group of winegrowers, a younger generation that’s both honoring the tradition of the Weinviertel, and pushing forward a new narrative of youthful energy and brilliant winemaking. Katharina Gessl is one such grower, based in Zellerndorf, just a stone’s throw from the Fidessers in Platt and the Buchmayers in Pillserdorf. Together, the three represent the new-new of Weinviertel winegrowing, and for us, an utterly exciting future for Austria’s biggest wine region.

We met Katharina in 2023 during her US debut at Karakterre in New York City, where we were immediately drawn to her vivacious personality and spirited wines. At the time, she was already represented by a different national importer and also had minuscule amounts of wine available for export. Over the next few years we stayed in touch, continued to taste, and in 2026 welcomed Katharina and her wines to the High Five family.

Katharina has spent most of her life on her parents’ organically-farmed 180-hectare property, both in the 20 hectares of vines and working at her family’s heurige (wine tavern). She had the foresight to study international wine business and media strategy in The Netherlands, not even entirely sure that being a farmer and winemaker was in her future. But after time away and the pull to work with her family, she returned home to study enology and agronomy in Vienna and started her label in 2022 with just 2.5 hectares peeled off her family’s vineyards. Today she’s grown to manage 9 hectares and makes a wildly fun (yet decidedly delicious and well-made) 2,500 cases including pet nats and still wines.

The Gessl family dynamic is one we find genuinely endearing, with Katharina’s father handing over the reins of the family’s winery (Bio-Weingut Gessl) and supporting her decision to start her own label in a small and intentional way, learning as she goes. Her parents are ‘retired’ but they’re a tight-knit family that’s deeply curious about the world of wine, and there’s a palpable respect between parents and child here, one that simultaneously supports tradition and looks to the future.

Zellerndorf sits in the Weinviertel’s Retzerland, in the heart of wide expanses of mixed agriculture and a view over the Manhartsberg ridge. The ridge, which acts as a bit of a natural buffer between the Waldviertel (literally the colder ‘forest quarter’) and the Weinviertel (literally the ‘wine quarter’), features loads of granite and other crystalline rocks that are highly unique in this part of Austria. While Katharina’s 4-hectare granite parcel of grüner veltliner proved to be a low-ripening annoyance to her grandparents and parents, it’s absolutely shining these days and she loves it so much that she’s planting an additional half hectare just above the existing vines. Elsewhere her soils are a more typical mix of loam, loess, clay, and a bit of gravel. One of the western Weinviertel’s greatest features is the wind that’s sucked from the west through the cold Waldviertel, which constantly moves through the vines during the growing season, tempering the heat and offering a much-needed cool breeze across the open fields.

Katharina’s wines are mostly white-varietal focused, with reds used for pet nat rosé and one stand-alone Sankt Laurent bottling. They speak of place, surely, but of a curious, bright spirit, and a winegrower who’s putting in the good, hard work, but not taking herself too seriously. All of the wines are named using Weinviertel dialect, directly referencing Katharina’s homage to this place and her family’s place in it. In reflecting back to tasting her first vintage in New York, it would have been very easy to assume it was all luck, the deliciousness and precision of those first wines. But having followed Katharina’s rise over the past 4 vintages, it’s abundantly clear that luck has almost nothing to do with it. There’s an undeniable sense of clarity, of excitement, emanating from her wines, and we’re thrilled to welcome her to the portfolio.