300 Years Neudeggerhof . 30 years organic wine. Winemaker’s comment
Building and Living
What will our children think about us and our ancestors? Will they be proud and happy about all we have done?
This is a question I personally ask myself again and again. And I also think about it when I carry out renovations and conversions in the winery. Is the work easy to do or are there construction sins and are materials used that will be expensive to dispose of later?
Conserving resources
Our goal is to work in a way that conserves resources as much as possible. For any kind of construction, we always use materials that are environmentally friendly. For example, we use cellulose, wood fibre, glass foam/granulate or flax to insulate our buildings. For renovation, we use clay plaster, mineral plasters and wood from our own forest. If possible, we try not to seal any more surfaces, but to make the best possible use of the buildings we already have. This also includes not destroying old buildings but renovating them if possible. A few examples: One of our barns dates back to the 17th century, another one was built in 1860. Our vaulted cellar is also still in full use: It is about 300 years old and is thus the oldest part of our winery. Today’s tasting rooms and our guest rooms were once occupied by pigs or were used as straw storage rooms.
Into Self-sufficiency
We also have our own domestic water supply on the winery. The water comes from our own well, which is more than 100 years old. The water is used, among other things, for cooling in the cellar and for sanitary facilities. We can thus use precious drinking water from our local well more sparingly.
Since 2000, a photovoltaic system has been producing electricity at the winery. The existing system was expanded in 2021 and supplemented with a storage battery. So when the sun is shining during the day, we only use electricity from our own production and also fill up the storage battery. In turn, the stored electricity supplies us overnight. In the meantime, almost all of our lights have been converted to LED.
Our entire heat and hot water supply is provided by our own solar system and our own wood chip heating system. The wood for this comes from our forest in the nearby Manhartsberg. And because many small building blocks make a big one, we also make sure, for example, that our washing machine and dishwasher are connected directly to the hot water supply – so less electricity is used for washing clothes and dishes.
Numbers and Data
- Electricity production: our own 15Kwp photovoltaic (PV) system and 10 Kwp photovoltaic system of an external, regional operator.
- Electricity storage: 22 kph storage battery
- Depth of local well for drinking water: 150m
- Depth of domestic well for service water: 50m
- The 80 kW wood chip system, in combination with solar panels, supplies the winery, the guest rooms and four households with heat and hot water all year around.