Winemaker uses music to set Austria’s largest winery apart
Sunday 20th September 2026 on 18:00 in
Austria
Winemakers face challenges from climate change and falling wine consumption, but Katharina Baumgartner is using unconventional methods to distinguish her business in the Pulkautal. The 28-year-old plays music to her wine, ORF reported.
During a visit by noe.ORF.at, Baumgartner lowered a chain into a 20-metre-high steel tank at her winery in Untermarkersdorf, in the Hollabrunn district. Four underwater speakers were attached to the chain and played operetta music to Grüner Veltliner.
Baumgartner said the method was technical rather than esoteric. The speakers vibrate in the tank, keeping the yeast that settles at the bottom moving finely, in a similar way to a stirring device. She said the type of music did not matter. A wine produced for a Harley-Davidson charity tour was played engine sounds and the process worked in the same way, she said, only faster.
The method also supports the winery’s marketing as Baumgartner works to reshape the business. Her grandfather Wolfgang and later her father, Wieland Baumgartner, expanded the originally small winery from the 1960s by buying vineyards from winemakers who had left the profession.
The business has grown into Austria’s largest winery, with 210 hectares of vineyards and annual production of 18 million litres of wine. Until about 15 years ago, it produced only wine sold in barrels. It then began bottling and marketing wine under its own name.
Baumgartner took over the business from her father six years ago, when she was 22. He remains closely involved, while her brother Lorenz also helps run the company. The winery’s new direction has been reflected in awards at wine competitions in New York, London and Paris, as well as its recognition as Austria’s best winery at Mundus Vini in Vienna.
About 80 percent of the wine produced in Untermarkersdorf is exported. Baumgartner attends trade fairs around the world and also leads groups on tours of the winery.
Her next project is the creation of the Pulkautal-DAC brand. Preparatory work is under way, although it has not yet been decided which grape variety or varieties will be included. Baumgartner said a red wine could be part of it, noting that the Pulkautal was once known as a red-wine region, with red wine accounting for 80 percent of production.