Sepp Mantler – Austria (Mantlerhof)

Name: Sepp Mantler

Country: Austria

Currently: Winemaker of Mantlerhof

Website: www.mantlerhof.com

Questions:

Please, tell us about how you got into wine, the wine industry and how your career developed?

As I was raised in a wine-grower family, there was always wine around us. BUT: at the age of about 5 years, I crawled on the table to drink what the guest had left in the glasses. That provoked a clear reproof from my parents. That was reason enough to avoid the contact to wine for the future. My father guided me carefully to wine only in mid teenage years. The final decision was taken to enter into wine as a profession after Commercial academy (secondary school) in studying agriculture. During that time I had practical training in Burgundy (Domaine Parent) and South Africa (Delheim Wines).

What is your philosophy to making wine and viticulture?

Any intervention in the cellar has to be as close as possible to the grape. In wine growing as well as in the cellar I work organic (certified), keeping in mind all the principles I studied. The character of every wine should reflect the grape and the particular features of its origin, at best the single vineyard.

Which cultivar is your favourite to work with and why?

Generally I am socialized with white wine. For me the most challenging grape is Roter Veltliner, because of its sensibility for botrytis – but it has the potential to give the basis of opulent, juicy wines with great potential. This grape has a long tradition at Mantlerhof. In general I am fascinated from Riesling because of its possible nervous, whirring character.  

How do you see the future of wine production and what are the challenges and the opportunities?

I deeply hope that wine will remain part of our Christian occident heritage. Challenges could be climatic change for our white wine style (if it proves true). A danger to wine may be a future fundamentalism of legislators against all nutrients with potential risk to health, as we are currently experiencing with tobacco (I do not smoke), followed by salt, fat … and alcoholic beverages. As opportunity I hope that wine can establish as sophisticated, highly refined part of life in many cultures.

Where do you see the global wine market in 2025?

Due to further concentration of marketing I assume a sharp division in brands with predictable profile and individually crafted, prestigious wines for the oenophiles.

Sepp Mantler

@ by Dominik Kozlik – Zeitgeist Sommeliers – International Sommelier Positions – www.sommelier-jobs.com