Wine Estate

SCHLOSS HALBTURN, the most important Baroque building in the Burgenland, once served as a hunting and summer residence for the Emperor. The birth of the Schloss Halbturn vineyard was in Jois (Jungenberg). It was there that Count Poth established the first vineyards in the year 1214 by the purchase of 14 farms from the Hungarian Altenburg manor.

In 1960 the first vineyard was planted by Baron Paul Waldbott-Bassenheim in an old estate called Wittmannshof at the side of Schloss Halbturn.

In 2001 this traditional enterprise close to the Hungarian border was ambitiously restructured. On the initiative of Baroness Marietheres Waldbott-Bassenheim and under the management of Markus Graf zu Kœnigsegg, the nephew of the owners family, no cost or effort was spared to establish Schloss Halbturn as one of the leading vineyards in the country. Altogether 100 acres of the 160 acres of the whole vineyard were cleared and replanted. In addition, the historic terraces on the Jungenberg were revitalised.

In the cellar as well, no stone was left unturned. The result is probably one of the most beautiful cellars in the country in the Bordelais style (chai) and the top-level cellar technology.

Today wine estate Schloss Halbturn is owned by the families of Markus Graf zu Koenigsegg-Aulendorf, Max Erbgraf zu Koenigsegg-Aulendorf and Dieter Hoffmann-Unzog. This ensures a solid basis for the challange of the future and the further development of the wine estate.

Since its first vintage in 2002 the Schloss Halbturn team has proved its qualities. The honours acquired nationally and abroad demonstrate this (among other awards: the Falstaff Sortensieger 2004, 2005 and 2006, winner of the VINARIA red wine final, winner of the Pinot Noir Cup in Germany, Gold Medals in Japan and London, Robert Parker jun.).