Julie Hoch, a German native, transplanted herself to Austria after getting bitten by the wine bug and falling in love with Christoph Hoch. Julie is a phenomenal cook, constantly coming up with new fermented hot sauces or special pickle recipes that you won’t find in any cookbook. Saying that she is a great cook, doesn’t quite capture the extra creativity that goes into each dish she prepares. So, it is not a surprise that she dreamed up a new low ABV drink combining wine and botanical tea. 

She was inspired because there are so many flowers and plants growing naturally among the Hoch vineyards and she wanted to create something that captured the smells and surroundings of the vines, another level of terroir. There are wild elderflower bushes and wild rose bushes all throughout their biodynamic vineyards in the Kremstal. In the spring and summer, she harvests the petals by hand and dries them. The wild clippings are supplemented with cultivated elderflower and damask roses.

To make this naturally low ABV sparkling botanical wine, Julie starts by making a tea during harvest, with the pure petals of the flowers. When the grapes come in, she blends the tea with the fresh grape must, about 70% grape must to 30% tea, and captures the natural fermentation in the bottle. The sparkling botanical wine finishes fermentation dry and naturally has 7% ABV. The floral notes are present, but beautifully integrated, with the juicy aspects of the Grüner and Zweigelt fruit. The wines are complex, but not complicated – fresh, dry, floral, truly delicious and of course, unique like all of Julie’s creations.