Sohm & Kracher

The project was not born in Austria but in New York. There, in 2004, sommelier Aldo Sohm and winemaker Gerhard Kracher met, both Austrians, and the idea of making a wine together came four years later, over lunch in Queens. The first vintage is 2009.

Sohm is not just any sommelier: he runs the cellar at Le Bernardin, three Michelin stars in Manhattan, and won the Best Sommelier in the World competition. That outlook explains the house brief, which reads almost like a service rule: low to moderate alcohol and never unctuous wines.

The grapes come from good sites in the Weinviertel, north of Vienna, with old vines on limestone-rich soils. The Lion comes from the Pulkautal, almost on the Czech border.