Dorli Muhr's Blaufränkisch is considered the very best wine of this grape variety. She is not called 'queen of Blaufränkisch' for nothing. Sizzling wines full of elegance, almost Burgundian in nature, complex and captivating but also juicy and transparent. Recently named 'heroine of the year' by Perswijn.
In her twenties, she already talked her way into the legendary Château Mouton-Rothschild. As the owner of the PR agency Wine & Partners, she put Austrian wine back on the map after the antifreeze scandal. And today, she runs her own acclaimed vineyard on the fresh Spitzerberg together with her ex Dirk van der Niepoort.
But it had been an old dream to one day make her own wine. Muhr went looking for vineyards in Italy and France. 'My friend Paolo de Marchi of the famous Isole e Olena winery in Tuscany advised me to go to the Italian region of Maremma, along the coast in southwestern Tuscany. I bought 20 hectares of land in the hills there, exclusively grassland and oaks. But I panicked when I started drawing up my financial plan. I paid off my loan to the banks, but waited to plant grapevines.'
Shortly thereafter, Muhr became friends with Dirk van der Niepoort, a household name among the new generation of winemakers along the Douro in Portugal. 'I lived between Vienna and the Douro. And you know, the most important thing I learned about winemaking is how difficult it is to produce good wines in a warm region. I found it wonderful how Dirk managed to get finesse and freshness into his wines. I also began to realize that Maremma was not the right place for me to make my own wines.
After much deliberation, Muhr returned to Austria. More specifically, to Prellenkirchen, the place where her grandmother once had a tiny vineyard. There, on the Spitzerberg, Muhr started making wine in 2002, the year she and Van der Niepoort got married. 'Dirk immediately had a good feeling about the vineyards on the Spitzerberg. I dreamed of making wines with exceptional finesse from the Blaufränkisch grape.'
The plan was for Van der Niepoort to come to Austria after the harvest in the Douro to harvest the late-ripening Blaufränkisch. But after a few harvests, that proved too complex: Muhr made the 2006 and 2007 vintages all by herself.
'That period turned into a nightmare. I had winemaking, my PR agency, and also a three-year-old daughter. And in 2007, Dirk also ended our marriage.'
After the divorce, the Austrian brought in a new winemaker. 'Today, I make the wines together with Lukas Brandstätter. And I notice that the wines are scoring better and better internationally.'
Muhr firmly believes in the feminine side of wine. 'That goes from less dominance to a sense of harmony and a desire for cooperation. I absolutely do not run my PR agency hierarchically. Everyone must take responsibility. I absolutely do not want to create a forced wine style, but rather that the terroir yields its best product.'
