Works
of art
Künstler Winery

Cooperation with
Weingut Künstler

“We see our wines as works of art and every year it’s exciting to express their unique character and flavour,” Gunter says. Living up to his surname Künstler (German for artist), he believes good winemakers create wines like paintings with nature as their colour palette.
The Künstler Winery has been family-owned since 1648. However, its origins are not in the Rheingau, but in the village of Untertannowitz in Southern Moravia, 80 km north of Vienna, in what is now the Czech Republic. “Many people don’t know this, but this region has 19 000 ha of vines, which is six times bigger than the Rheingau,” Gunter says.
“My father, Franz Künstler, was relocated to the region after World War 2.” Franz founded the winery in 1965 at a new location in Hochheim and Gunter took over from him in 1992. In 1994, the winery was admitted to the Verband der Prädikatsweingüter (VDP), an organisation that promotes top-quality German wines and estates, and verifies the authenticity of the wines to protect producers and consumers.

Over 80% of the vineyards are planted with Riesling. Gunter aims for consistent quality management. “We’re going back to the future in our winemaking methods,” he says. “For example, we work with basket presses and Bâtonnage.”

The Künstler family’s original coat of arms with its red and black background is used on all the labels. It’s rich in symbolism. On the top left is an artist’s palette with brushes and paints, and on the top right the Southern Moravian country squire raises a wine glass. A plough for cultivating the fields represents agriculture, while a knight’s visor with two vine knives sits atop the crest. Lush foliage adorns the sides of the crest. “The embossing of the crest is detailed and placed with millimetre-precision using gold hot foil stamping,” Theresa says. “Over the past few years we’ve added more texture to the label.”

The logo is artistically presented and looks as if it has been handwritten with a pen. The K, with its sweeping design, is particularly striking. Also typical of the Künstler wine labels is the formal punching along the edges, a change that was introduced in 2002. “I like that,” Gunter says. “The inspiration comes from wineries in Champagne and South Africa.”

The premium Erste Lage and Große Lage wines are differentiated by a bar element in the lower area of the label which is printed in black or embossed into the material using gold hot foil stamping.