Luis Oberrauch is someone who did not get his passion for wine right from the cradle but nevertheless has lived it since his childhood. However, it is only since 2017 that he has run his own Luis Oberrauch Estate Winery in Ora in which all of his knowledge and experience flow together.
Already as a child, Oberrauch went hand in hand with his godfather through his vineyards, and at age 13 he made his first wine under that uncle’s tutelage. This was followed by agricultural high school, oenology studies in Geisenheim, Germany, and work at the Cantina Tramin at which even today, Oberrauch lends a hand to winemaker Willi Stürz.
Then in 2017, the opportunity presented itself to lease vineyards in Ora. “There are around five thousand grapevines in my vineyards, and even though it may sound silly, I know every single one of them,” Oberrauch says. He deals carefully and gently with his vines that grow on Pergola trellises. “In the face of more and more frequent extreme weather events, the pergola trellis has a series of advantages,” the winegrowing expert explains. These include deeper root systems (and thus less drought stress) and natural shading that prevents a burning of the grapes.
“Just like in the vineyard, it is also important for me in the winery to make only minimal interventions,” Oberrauch says. His wines are therefore only coarsely filtered just shortly before bottling, and Oberrauch does without fining. His lifelong roots in the world of wine also shows itself in his selection of grape varieties. Thus what grows at the Luis Oberrauch Estate Winery is only the indigenous varieties of Lagrein and Schiava.
