Why it matters
The producer
Michael Gindl took over his father’s farm in 2002, when he was seventeen. The wines now carry Demeter status and come from organically treated vines; that farming commitment runs through Flora, Buteo, Buteo 12 and SOL rather than sitting apart from the cellar. The result is a range where the material of the farm—animals, lees, steel and wood—appears in the way each bottle is built.
The farm changed direction in stages. Gindl assumed responsibility for it in 2002; in 2010 he brought animals back and completed the conversion to biodynamics. That later decision connects directly to the wine in the cellar: vines are farmed biodynamically, fermentation is spontaneous, and the finished wines are minimally processed and unfiltered. Flora and the Grüner Veltliner wines therefore carry a consistent chain from cultivated vines to active fermentation rather than a conventionalised finish.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Hohenruppersdorf lies in Lower Austria, roughly an hour from Vienna, within the Weinviertel association. This is the address behind Gindl’s Grüner Veltliner and white blends: Buteo takes Grüner Veltliner through stainless steel, while Flora uses a changing group of white grapes. Place here is not a promise of one vineyard character; it is the working setting in which a farm produces wines through particular grapes and cellar vessels.
Gindl does not present a geological story for these wines. The documented ground-level fact is farming: horses, sheep, goats and Scottish Highland cattle are part of the estate, and the cattle’s manure enriches vineyard soil. Since the vines are cultivated biodynamically, Buteo and Flora begin with a farm system that returns animal matter to the vineyard instead of treating soil care and wine production as separate tasks.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Biodynamic cultivation supplies the fruit, while spontaneous fermentation lets each lot ferment without a selected commercial yeast. Gindl leaves the wines unfiltered, a choice that retains the wine’s material after fermentation rather than stripping it to a bright, uniform surface. In practical drinking terms, this sets up wines with texture and sediment potential as part of their natural presentation; a bottle may benefit from gentle handling rather than being treated as a perfectly clear commodity.
Buteo, Buteo 12 and SOL spend several months on fine lees, the spent yeast cells left with the wine after fermentation. Lees contact can add body and a more cushioned palate, which matters especially beside the stainless-steel Buteo. Buteo 12 and SOL also mature in barrels made from wood in Gindl’s own forest. The vessel changes the wine’s shape: Buteo 12 moves toward a riper, foudre-aged Grüner Veltliner, while the original Buteo keeps its stainless-steel line.
Wines to know
The range in view
Flora is the most open-ended part of the range, a white wine whose grapes can change by vintage. Flora 2024 is a blend of Riesling, Gelber Muskateller and Scheurebe, three grapes that establish a citrus-and-floral register before the wine reaches the palate. Flora 2023 was fermented in stainless steel and underwent malolactic fermentation, so its fruit profile is framed by steel while the completed conversion can round the wine’s acidity and texture.
Buteo is the Grüner Veltliner to seek for the stainless-steel side of the cellar: a direct, fruit-led format without the foudre treatment documented for Buteo 12. Buteo 12 moves the same grape into a riper, wood-aged form, with fine lees and foudre adding more body and breadth. SOL also combines fine-lees maturation with barrels made from estate-grown wood, making it a further step into texture, oak influence and weight rather than another version of Flora’s aromatic blend.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with Flora 2024, the organic white blend of Riesling, Gelber Muskateller and Scheurebe. It puts three named grapes into one bottle, so citrus fruit and floral aroma are the first sensory reference points, while its changing vintage composition keeps the wine tied to a particular release rather than a fixed recipe. Flora comes before Buteo because it introduces Gindl’s spontaneous, minimally processed approach without requiring a comparison between steel and wood-aged Grüner Veltliner.