Martin Muthenthaler

Martin Muthenthaler returned home in 2005 to work on the north side of the Danube River in his family’s Spitzer Graben vineyards, the coldest section of the Wachau. Once in the path of the Danube before tectonic movements altered the course of the river, the steep, east-to-west running Spitzer Graben splits off from the river at the far western end of the Wachau where it turns north in about four kilometers. Here, Martin farms organically and does almost all of the vineyard work himself–at least until his Bavarian wife, Melanie, jumped in headfirst in 2021, also taking charge of restructuring their sales, marketing, and communications.

Without the assistance of consultants in the cellar but drawing on many years of exchange and collaboration with other growers and his close friend and neighbor, the Wachau luminary Peter Veyder-Malberg, this garagiste renaissance man gifted with a green thumb, a rockin’ work ethic and sharp palate crafts Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners of sterling precision and quality with few equals in all of Austria.