Dorli Muhr discovered her enthusiasm for wine during university studies training as an interpreter (French and Spanish), which led to her founding an agency for marketing and PR work in 1991 called Wine & Partners. This has since developed into a highly specialised business for communications involving wine, gourmet products and the culinary world. The desire to have her own wine production – which burned in the blood of farmers’ daughter Dorli – led ultimately to her replanting the fallow parcels on the Spitzerberg in 1995. Together with her then-husband Dirk van der Niepoort, Dorli Muhr recommenced wine production in 2002. Seeking perfection and maximum finesse, she began to acquire other parcels of vines to complement the family patch, so that the Weingut Muhr-van der Niepoort grew continually each year, in both quantity and quality. The regional Carnuntum is made predominantly from Blaufrankisch and complemented by smaller amounts of Syrah and Zweigelt. No use of sulphur on the grapes which ferment with wild yeasts and macerate very softly in large wooden fermenters without using any mechanical tools. Grapes and must are neither heated nor cooled. During the wine’s two years of maturation, they make only one soutirage – for the rest of the time, the wine simply matures slowly. The result is an impressive wine, with seductive fruit, finesse and tempting acidity. It is a wine that sommeliers love to serve by the glass, as it evolves and improves the longer the bottle is open.
