Wabi-Sabi

Wabi-sabi is a wine project by Franz Hofstätter. Franz has been involved with wine for over two decades, working with numerous renowned winemakers in Austria, helping them in their commercial, communication and marketing efforts under the Tastes of Austria (TOA) company.

Way beyond sales and marketing, Franz loves wine, loves his terroir of Wachau and loves nature. Wabi-sabi, his personal wine project, is all about that. We immediately loved the wines we tasted from him. Vibrant and alive, but also extremely well made, clean and balanced. Wines from someone who knows and loves wine, no doubt, and this for long enough that it’s clearly not a project of trends or romantic aspiration but about true love and dedication.

After tasting and drinking - the most important - we also related very much to the ideas behind the wine. As the name suggests, perfect wine doesn’t exist; beautiful wines do, and to exist, they must have imperfections. Wabi-sabi wines don’t try to be perfect. But they try to be beautiful, which is a lot of work. Certainly not the result of a “do nothing” approach, as Franz commented when talking about no intervention and other natural wine gimmicks.

Wabi-sabi lineup is split into two categories: the white labels, which are actually wines made in collaboration with other growers, from their grape and possibly in their cellars or in Wabi-sabi cellars; and the black labels, which are wines produced by Franz from vineyards he is managing himself, made in his very own “low tech” cellar. All wines follow an artisanal approach (native yeast, low SO2 and no other additives), respecting vineyards and the environment and trying to best express their terroir.

We are grateful and happy to introduce and represent Wabi-sabi wines in the US, a wine project in which we share a lot of the values; a wine project producing absolutely delicious, dynamic and beautiful wines with just enough imperfection!