The Sister & the Brother

The story of Schöfmann & Schöfmann begins not with a purchase but with a gift — a grandfather's trust passed down in the form of stone and timber. In 2020, the siblings' Opa gave them his old press house, built in 1870, located in the Kellertrift of Haugsdorf — the historic cellar lane where generations of Weinviertel winemakers have pressed their grapes and aged their wines in the cool, constant darkness of underground vaults. This was not merely a building; it was an inheritance of place, a physical connection to the way wine was made before industrial agriculture and technological intervention became the norm. Anna and Laurenz accepted the gift not as a museum piece but as a working studio — a place where the past could inform the present without imprisoning it.

Anna Schöfmann grew up in Retz, the historic wine town at the western edge of the Weinviertel, surrounded by the cool, windswept vineyards that have made the region famous for crisp, peppery Grüner Veltliner. Her path to wine was not immediate but deliberate: during her five-year tourism education, she discovered a love for wine that led her to national and international competitions, and eventually to a degree in International Wine Business. She brings to the project a mind for markets, a voice for storytelling, and a belief that wine is as much about communication as it is about agriculture. Laurenz, meanwhile, grew up in Haugsdorf, the so-called red-wine island of the Weinviertel, where Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch ripen on sandy soils under a warmer sun. He knew from early childhood that his future lay in the vineyard — he sat on the tractor before he could reach the pedals, attended the HBLA for Wine and Fruit Growing in Klosterneuburg, and gathered practical experience in the Kamptal and the Thermenregion before returning home. He brings the technical hand, the cellar discipline, and the farmer's patience that turns grapes into wine.

Both siblings worked in the family winery — Weingut Schöfmann in Haugsdorf, where their uncle Anton Schöfmann has long been the established vigneron and where three generations still contribute to the daily labour. But Anna and Laurenz wanted something that was unmistakably their own: a project that could reflect their dual upbringing, their shared ecological values, and their refusal to accept that wine must be complicated to be good. In 2022, they presented their first two wines — a Grüner Veltliner from the Ried Altenberg in Retz and a red cuvée from Haugsdorf — and Schöfmann & Schöfmann was born. The name is not a corporate construction; it is a statement of equality. Sister and brother, side by side, each bringing what the other lacks, united by a cellar that predates them both and a philosophy that will outlast them.

The cellar philosophy at Schöfmann & Schöfmann is governed by a single principle: no Schnick-Schnack — no unnecessary complication, no technological theatre, no additives that the vineyard did not provide. The wines are made in their grandfather's historic press house from 1870, in the Kellertrift of Haugsdorf, where the old vaulted cellar — the Kellerröhre — provides a microclimate of cool, damp darkness that has been shaping Weinviertel wine for more than a century and a half. This is not a nostalgic choice; it is a functional one. The thick stone walls, the earthen floor, and the absence of modern climate control create conditions for slow, spontaneous fermentation and calm, unhurried ageing that no stainless steel tank or temperature-controlled room can replicate. The wine develops here as it did for their great-grandfather: gradually, honestly, and without haste.

All wines are spontaneously fermented with indigenous yeasts — no commercial inoculations, no enzymatic corrections, no chaptalisation, no acidification. The grapes are hand-harvested into small containers and brought to the old cellar for gentle pressing. The Grüner Veltliner from Retz's Ried Altenberg is whole-cluster pressed and fermented slowly at cool temperatures in the cellar vault, preserving its peppery freshness, its green apple clarity, and its mineral backbone. The red cuvée from Haugsdorf's Trift 34 — a blend of Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch, with possible contributions from Pinot Noir — undergoes a brief maceration and gentle fermentation, producing a wine of immediate fruit, soft tannins, and the sunny, approachable charm that defines the red-wine island. The siblings take time for every step, allowing the wines to develop depth and character without forcing them into a predetermined style.

The portfolio is deliberately small — a reflection of the project's youth and the siblings' commitment to quality over quantity. The inaugural 2022 release comprised two wines that announced the estate's identity with startling clarity: a white that speaks of Retz's cool wind and a red that speaks of Haugsdorf's warm sand. Since then, the range has expanded gently, always maintaining the same principles: handcrafted, unfiltered where possible, minimal sulfur, and a refusal to standardise. The labels themselves tell the story — simple, direct, and unpretentious, like the people who made them. The Grüner Veltliner Ried Altenberg is the estate's white flagship: linear, peppery, mineral, and unmistakably Retz. The Cuvée Trift 34 Haugsdorf is the red signature: fruity, soft, food-friendly, and unmistakably Haugsdorf. And the Wild & Witzig — Wild & Witty — is the playful side of the project, a wine that captures the siblings' youth and their refusal to take themselves too seriously.

Beyond technique, the cellar is an extension of the siblings' relationship. Anna brings the conceptual framework — the understanding of markets, the awareness of trends, the knowledge of what wine lovers in Copenhagen, London, and Tokyo are looking for. Laurenz brings the practical execution — the pruning decisions, the harvest timing, the fermentation management, the racking, the bottling. Together, they have created a workflow that is rare in the wine world: a true partnership of equals, where neither dominates and both are necessary. The old cellar does not care about gender or age or education; it cares only about patience, cleanliness, and respect for the material. Anna and Laurenz have learned to listen to it, and the wine is the proof that they are being heard.

To understand Schöfmann & Schöfmann, one must understand that it is not merely a winery; it is a bridge — between two towns, two siblings, two viticultural philosophies, and two generations of a family that has anchored the Weinviertel for decades. Anna and Laurenz are the next generation of the Schöfmann family, but they are not waiting to inherit. They have claimed their own space, their own cellar, their own voice — and in doing so, they have created something that is both deeply traditional and unmistakably new. The grandfather's gift of the 1870 press house was not a retirement plan; it was a challenge — a demand that the siblings prove themselves not by the family name but by their own hands.

The identity is defined by duality. Retz and Haugsdorf are only kilometres apart, but they produce wines of entirely different temperament. Retz is cool, white, linear, and peppery — a place of Grüner Veltliner and restraint. Haugsdorf is warm, red, fruity, and generous — a place of Zweigelt and welcome. Anna and Laurenz have refused to choose between these two identities; instead, they have united them in a single project that offers both. This is not a compromise; it is an expansion. The white wine drinker and the red wine drinker can meet at their table, share their cellar, and taste the same philosophy expressed through different grapes and different soils. The result is a winery that is neither exclusively white nor exclusively red, neither exclusively Retz nor exclusively Haugsdorf — but wholly Weinviertel.

The future of Schöfmann & Schöfmann is tied to the continued health of the select parcels they farm, to the deepening relationship with their historic cellar, and to the gradual expansion of a portfolio that will always remain small enough to be personal. New cuvées will emerge — perhaps a Pinot Noir from the Hutberg, perhaps a field blend that marries Retz and Haugsdorf in a single bottle, perhaps a skin-contact white that pushes the boundaries of what Grüner Veltliner can do. But the core will remain: two siblings, one cellar, two origins, and a philosophy that refuses to complicate what should be simple. The sheep will continue to fertilize the vines, the trees will continue to provide habitat, the natural ground cover will continue to protect the soil, and the old cellar will continue to breathe its cool, damp air into every barrel and every bottle.

In an age of increasing industrialisation in wine — of global brands, engineered yeasts, and technological fixes — Schöfmann & Schöfmann stands as a compelling alternative, not because it rejects modernity but because it has embraced a deeper modernity: one that values a 150-year-old cellar over a new tank, a sibling partnership over a corporate hierarchy, sheep manure over chemical fertilizer, natural ground cover over bare soil, tree planting over hedge trimming, spontaneous fermentation over inoculation, minimal sulfur over sterile filtration, the historic Kellerröhre over the climate-controlled room, two first wines over a dozen mediocre ones, Retz coolness over global warmth, Haugsdorf generosity over standardised blandness, and the simple honesty of no fuss over the elaborate theatre of luxury marketing. Anna and Laurenz Schöfmann are not merely making wine; they are proving that a sister and a brother can build a winery from a grandfather's gift, that two towns can coexist in a single bottle, that a biologist's children can farm with scientific respect and artisanal intuition, and that the next generation of the Weinviertel does not need to imitate the Wachau or the Kamptal to find its own greatness. From the Retz wind to the Haugsdorf sun, from the old cellar to the new glass, from the sister's vision to the brother's hand: all united in one bottle, one cellar, one unanswerable argument for the possibility of authentic, place-specific, sibling-made, low-intervention wine from the Weinviertel.