THE LESEHOF

The Lesehof has stood in Krems-Stein since 1424. The Benedictine Abbey of Tegernsee built it over an older cellar. Records from that time already speak of monks planting vines here and cultivating apricots.

My family took over the Lesehof in 1786. Wine has been made here without interruption ever since. In the early 1980s, my father brought the Swedish name Stagård, with its distinctive å, into the family. I have used it as the name of the estate since 2008.

Ten generations of winegrowing lie between those beginnings and the present. To me, that is more than tradition. It is a responsibility to continue, to look more closely and to carry the estate forward with a clear signature of my own.

I have farmed my vineyards organically since 2005. Working biodynamically is the consistent development of that decision: paying closer attention to the soil, the vines, natural rhythms and the life of the vineyard.

Quality begins in the vineyard. Character develops in the cellar.

THE STORY

A family estate since 1786.

My father brought the Swedish name Stagård into the family in the early 1980s. In 2008, I officially took over the estate as the tenth generation.

I did not want to make wines that merely quenched a thirst. I wanted them to tell something of me: of my ideas, my vines, my sites and the place they come from.

I began converting the vineyards to organic farming in 2005 and set myself goals that I could reach step by step. Not quickly. Not loudly. But consistently.

I wanted to make courageous, compelling and authentic wines. Wines in which evolution and tradition are two sides of the same coin. Some that give immediate pleasure, and others that ask more of you.

And I wanted Riesling.