2024 Zorra

Label: Nittnaus
Vintage: 2024
Fruit: Zweigelt | Blaufränkisch
Region: Burgenland, Austria
ABV: 11.5%

raspy sassy / rhubarb for your pleasure / chasing the feeling

Direct-pressed Rotburger aged in stainless steel. This is a vivid tonic rosé loaded with herbs, juniper, and fresh wild berries on the nose. On the palate, it is bright, light, and salty, with watermelon, strawberries, red currants, and light rhubarb notes on the finish.

Walk into any Austrian restaurant, order a bottle of Nittnaus, and you'll earn an approving nod from the sommelier. For over 30 years, the Anita and Hans Nittnaus Winery has led Austria's wine scene, with Hans still driving key innovations in Burgenland. But the newer operation running in his shadow was started by his two sons, Andreas and Martin, and their cousin Lydia.

Martin studied literature and fell for wine after friends introduced him to it — he wanted in, but not by following his father's path exactly. Lydia, the oldest cousin, studied anthropology and caught the wine bug working at a winery. Andi trained formally in winemaking in Montpellier and Copenhagen.

In 2019 they launched their own Nittnaus label to push the family's work one step further. Like their parents, they don't want to mask or dilute the wine with oak, sugar, or other manipulations. The brothers split off a share of their parents' land to farm biodynamically, building on senior's sustainability efforts — composting, cover crops, minimal plowing. In the cellar they reach for tanks, old casks, or amphorae, all in pursuit of terroir and fruit purity. The trio is carving its own path, adding another dimension to what the family has already achieved.