Grape Guide
Zierfandler
Pink-skinnedZierfandler is a pink-skinned white variety grown almost entirely in Austria's Thermenregion, south of Vienna, where it is centred on the village of Gumpoldskirchen. It makes full-bodied, richly textured wines with firm acidity, traditionally blended with Rotgipfler and increasingly bottled alone. Plantings are small, at under 100 hectares in Austria.
Key characteristics
- Pink-berried variety that makes white wine
- Likely the offspring of Roter Veltliner crossed with a relative of Savagnin, arising without human breeding
- Large, compact bunches of small berries
- Buds late and ripens from the middle to the end of the season, with uneven yields
- Prone to downy mildew and to bunch rot caused by botrytis
Typical flavors
Major regions
Thermenregion (Austria) · Gumpoldskirchen (Austria) · Wagram (Austria) · Pécs (Hungary)
Also known as
Spätrot (Austria) · Gumpoldskirchner (Austria) · Cirfandli (Hungary) · Roter Zierfandler · Zierfandler Rot · Rubiner
Zierfandler is a rare pink-berried variety that expresses itself as a white wine of unusual weight and extract. Its home is the Thermenregion in Lower Austria, a warm, sheltered zone on the eastern foothills of the Alps, and the village of Gumpoldskirchen is its historic centre. The wines typically show orchard and stone fruit, candied orange peel, honey and baking spice, with a golden colour and a slightly oily texture that deepens with age.
Its acidity is what separates it from its usual blending partner, Rotgipfler, which is broader and lower in acid. Together they form the Spätrot-Rotgipfler blend, the regional signature, though Zierfandler is now often vinified alone, in both dry and sweet styles, and it ages well in either.
Zierfandler is almost certainly a natural cross. DNA profiling identifies Roter Veltliner as one parent and a relative of Savagnin as the other. The crossing is thought to have occurred near Gumpoldskirchen in Lower Austria. This makes it a close kin of Rotgipfler, which descends directly from Roter Veltliner and Savagnin, so the two grapes blended together in Gumpoldskirchen are near relatives. DNA analysis has not confirmed an older idea that Zierfandler was related to Silvaner, a variety once known under the names Grüner Zierfandler or Zierfandl; the two are not considered related.
The name Spätrot means late red and refers to the berries, which take on a reddish cast as they reach full ripeness. In Austria the two main names are Zierfandler and Spätrot, and Gumpoldskirchner is a local label for the wine. In Hungary the variety is called Cirfandli, and it was planted around Pécs in the mid 1800s. When the regime changed, only about a hectare survived, in a research institute vineyard, and production was revived from there. In Austria the area dropped below 100 hectares by the early 2010s.
Zierfandler produces big, tightly packed clusters whose small berries carry a greenish-pink tinge. Budbreak is late and the fruit reaches ripeness from the middle of the season into its later stretch, so the vine depends on the long, warm autumns of the Thermenregion. The dense clusters leave it open to downy mildew and to botrytis bunch rot, and crops swing erratically from vintage to vintage, which makes careful site selection and bunch thinning important. That same vulnerability to botrytis, a problem in wet years, becomes an asset in good ones: the variety's acidity carries noble rot well and underpins long-lived sweet wines.
Dry Zierfandler is typically full in body with substantial alcohol, stone fruit and orange peel, and a persistent, slightly spicy finish. Blends with Rotgipfler, labelled Spätrot-Rotgipfler or Gumpoldskirchner, balance Zierfandler's acidity with Rotgipfler's aromatic breadth. Because Zierfandler keeps its freshness, it is also used for late harvest, Auslese, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese wines in botrytis years, where it holds balance better than its partner. Single-vineyard bottlings are increasingly common, and the best show a nutty, almond-like note alongside the fruit and spice. Under the Thermenregion DAC, introduced with the 2023 vintage, Zierfandler is permitted in the single-vineyard (Riedenwein) and village (Ortswein) tiers, which carry a 12.5% minimum alcohol, as well as in regional wines.
Where it grows
Thermenregion (Austria)
Holds the great majority of Austrian plantings, with Gumpoldskirchen as the centre. Zierfandler can appear on Thermenregion DAC labels at village and single-vineyard level, often with Rotgipfler.
Wagram (Austria)
A few hectares are planted here, a minor holding well away from the Thermenregion core.
Pécs (Hungary)
Almost all Hungarian Cirfandli is in the Pécs wine region, reported at roughly 18 to 25 hectares depending on the source; the wines are full-bodied.
Notable producers (Austria)
Biegler, Stadlmann, Johanneshof Reinisch, Harald Zierer, Gebeshuber and Leo Aumann.
Notable producers (Hungary)
Lisicza, Matias, Andreas Ebner and Radó.