Intuition – An ability to understand or know something immediately based on your feelings rather than facts. 

“I don’t want to think more to get something. I understand that with more thinking I don’t get more out of it. If I have this sense and this feeling. And so, I really recognize this since I can make wine intuitively.”

This is Birgit, a female wine maker located in Gottlesbrunn, lower Austria.

A family run business with a long history, “150 years ago there was only one female daughter and she didn’t kept her name so she married to a man and he brought the name Widerstein here but the property is still the same as before,” explains Wiederstein.

From age 12 Birgit has been passionate about the Environment. Going on to pursue a degree in economy and ecology.

“This was for me super important when I was a kid and I was very curious about biology chemistry physics all that stuff and environment so environmental protection was again super important for me.”

Her Role

Birgit’s role within the winery can be best described as a solo performance , “I’m more or less the female one woman show because I drive the tractor, I make the green work, I’m in the office, I’m in the marketing, I do the sales, and also the cellar work so the cellar is also completely mine it’s also a small cellar so there is no space for other people.” she says while laughing.

The mindset of the wine maker

An artist who focuses on how she feels in the moment, listening to her body, and connecting with nature. With this mindset comes her inspiration.

“When I’m in nature I’m always inspired. What I understand is that when I can switch off my brain, work, or my thoughts, then I feel the connection. If I’m connected, then I’m connected with the bigger source that I have in me. And, then the inspiring comes naturally because it’s fluent.”

Birgit has three different swings all around her home, when she needs inspiration she likes to sit and feel the breeze through her hair and re-connect with her inner child.

This is another technique Birgit implements to connect with nature and with that blossoms her art. Although she views nature as the first creator.

“I think no artist is as creative as nature, because nature is the most astonishing artist.”

“But this is not art in an artificial way, it’s just nature. So the pure artists are the most or the biggest artist is nature for me. So I am part of that and what I do is I try to understand what is going on and yes I give an imprint,

So I give a human imprint on that and it also it’s like channelling what I experience and I channel it through my hands and I give also my intention and my feelings and my knowledge and everything into the mind.”

Intuitive wine making

“Trust what you feel you start trusting in your feelings. And then you can measure things with a meter, how heavy is something? how temperature feels. And this is so important then you trust yourself you have the knowledge but you also feel it. Go slow you have the power inside yourself to do the right decisions and this is really a big thing for me.”

“I do wine making in this emotional way.”

Family connection

While she took over the family business, this was never a forceful or pressurised aspect in her career.

“My parents were really good in accompanying me. So it was like learning to swim. They were at the pool, not in the pool with me so they always give me the support.”

Birgit feels strongly about passing these values onto her kids. She expressed this through sharing her only four rules she implements. “You have to be good to yourself. You have to be good to others. You have to greet and you have to say thank you. So 4 rules, no more.”

“Giving birth to them now, means I trust you and you will do it the best way you can, and I’ll be there for you. They have freedom, but they know what they can and what they can’t do. And they are secure in themselves.”

This again really comes from the way she was raised, which Birgit opened up about” It’s okay to learn also by fail and so this was really cool so I really thank them [her parents] a lot and I’m really grateful that they let me explore winemaking in that way so this perfect surrounding for me,” she expressed.

“For me, this small winemaking is my way. I’m curious, I still want to be curious… I’m like a small boat so I can go wherever or do whatever I would like to do.”