Franz Strohmeier on Minimal Pruning

The visionary Styrian vigneron is meeting wild vine growth halfway.

Among the most thought-provoking experiences of my stay in Austria in August was a visit to Styrian vigneron Franz Strohmeier. Soft-spoken, with a self-effacing grin, Strohmeier gives few outward signs of the radicalism that animates his approaches to viticulture and vinification. Shortly after initiating conversion to organics and biodynamics in 2003, …