Hans Reisetbauer
Hans Reisetbauer
This Article Contains |
People |
Focus |
Simply put, the world’s finest distillates. A strive for purity of flavor with the best ingredients and proprietary stills.
Country |
Austria
Region |
Weinviertel
Village |
Axberg
Climate |
Cool Continental
- Defined as very cold winters, hot, short, fairly rainy summers, with long, cool, dry autumns.
- Now: winters are usually not as cold, summers are much hotter, drought is a serious problem 4 or the last 5 years, autumns start later and are often much wetter than they used to be.
- Weinvertel gets the full exposure of cold northern gusts from the north sea.
- This is often better farmland than grape growing, making it perfect for Hans.
Crops |
140 ha
- 17,000 Williams pear trees
- 7,000 Apple trees
- Plums
- Other fruit trees
- Wheat
- Barley
Farming |
Biodynamic
- Certified by Repekt Biodyn
- Changed farming after a trip to DRC after tasting with Aubert De Villaine and his best friend Berhanrd Ott
Cellar Work |
- Fermentation tanks have interfaces which allow them to be operated directly though Hans’ smartphone
- Obtaining complete, exact control of temperature during the entire production process allows the subtleties of each distillate to be fully captured
- Meticulous attention to detail inspired the distillery’s fifth and most recent renovation
- In 2019, the entire distillery was dismantled and replaced with an energy self-sufficient facility which has been designed with the most technologically advanced stills from Christian Carl.
- Hans now has forty-eight different points used for adjusting temperature in a single still which enables precise control down to .05 degrees during distillation.
- Following fermentation, the mash of each of Reisetbauer’s eaux-de-vie is distilled twice and the heads and tails discarded.
- Only the heart of the distillate is kept as it contains the most prized volatile and aromatic components from the raw material and is responsible for creating distinctive aromas.
- Eaux-de-vie are rested for at least 3 years in stainless steel
- Diluted with Alpine spring water sourced from Mühlviertel, which has exclusively provided fresh low calcium, low sodium spring water for Reisetbauer for nearly three decades.
About the Distillery |
The greatest distiller of all time. Or at least that is Hans Reisetbauer’s goal. He started in 1990, planting an orchard with the goal of making the best eaux-de-vie (fruit brandy/Schnapps) in the world. In 1994 Christian Carl, a renowned German distillery fabricator, made his first still, designed by Hans. By 1996 he won his first Schnapp’s of the year award.
Since then he’s done everything possible to get better, and better, and better. His still has been redesigned and rebuilt 5 times now, most recently this year. No detail is left to chance from the moment fruit (or veggies) are picked, through fermentation, distillation and aging. Farming because of weather is the only thing up to chance and for this he has a team obsessed with healthy soils and crops.
He’s distilled everything from ginger, to Serbian raspberries (organic, hand picked $7/pound!), to carrots (it takes 300 pounds of carrots for one 375ml bottle of eaux-de-vie). Eventually he started growing wheat and barley to produce gin and whiskey, now winning awards of their own. The real winners though, are not for sale. The best winemakers in the world (Dönnhoff, Roulot, etc.) send over the pomace from their top vineyards to be turned into brandy. As if Oberhäuser Brücke could be more intense? Well it can.
What do the wines taste like?
Perfection. These are distillates intended to uncover the very essence of something. Any flavor he has managed to distill (not everything works, you need a certain amount of sugar) is going to be made MORE in his hands.
If you haven’t tried them, there is a piece of your life missing and you don’t even know it.