I was born on March 4th in 1983 and fell in love with the wine-growing business at my parents‘ winery when I was still a teenager.

In 1997 I started to gain more theoretical and practical knowledge at the Federal College and Institute for Viticulture and Pomology, the world’s first and a renowned viticultural school in Klosterneuburg near Vienna.

Two years later I worked at the Knoll Winery in the Wachau Valley, where I realized at a still tender age that the vintners‘ efforts in the vineyards are later reflected in their wines.
In the year 2000 the Ronco del Gnemiz winery in Friuli, Italy, gave me the opportunity to get to know for the first time full-bodied white wines matured in small oak barrels.
That same year I learned more about the general structure of a first-rate winery in our region - Topf in the Kamp Valley.

At the Fabrizio Iuli winery (Piemont), I found it very exciting to see how great Italian red wines are made, starting in the vineyard and finishing in the cellar.
In 2002 Roberto Cipresso (Tuscany) showed me what the life of a “flying winemaker“ is like, and another visit to Fabrizio Iuli in Piemont laid the foundations for an extraordinary friendship between colleagues.

In summer 2003, I had the great opportunity to be part of the Loisium wine project, a new wine centre in the Kamp Valley, also learning many technical details and subtleties of the wine business at the Steininger Winery.

In summer and autumn 2004, after finishing my military service, I was drawn again to the Ronco del Genemiz winery. This time I had the great luck to meet Andrea Pittana, a talented and gifted wine consultant, and experience with him the beginning of the harvest at Serena Palazzolo’s winery. Once again I realized how important it is to take every step consciously when making wine.

When I came back from Italy I began to study “International Wine Management“ at the University of Applied Sciences in Eisenstadt, Austria. My special thanks go to my partner Anna Steininger, who had inspired me to do this.

During my studies I spent the summer of 2005 in Cambridge in order to improve my English. This was also a good chance to get more of an insight into the English wine market. And another two weeks in Poland - at Krasków Castle in Lower Silesia near Breslau--allowed me to get to know Polish cultural life and meet many nice people.