Lenz Moser – protecting the environment day by day
For us at Lenz Moser winery, “sustainability” means living such that the environment, the economy and society all have equal rights and guarantee a successful, positive development for us and our field. Sustainable products also contribute towards the future viability of our company.
It is important to us that values are created, that viticulture in Austria continues to leave its mark on the countryside, and that consumers can have full confidence in the excellent, high-quality Austrian wine.
The name Lenz Moser is inextricably linked with development and advances in Austrian viticulture. Starting from the company’s headquarters in Rohrendorf, close to Krems, the company of Lenz Moser has been endeavouring to promote Austrian wine culture since 1849.
Prof. Dr h. c. Lenz Moser III in particular wrote a piece of wine history, being considered a reformer of wine culture and founder of the “Lenz Moser high culture” style of training. He worked according to the principle:
“The truth in wine is the winemaker’s love of nature, of the care of the grapevines, of the attentiveness in the pressing, of the honesty in the winery and of the authenticity of the product.”
He performed his first experiments in the high culture training system on the estate of his father Laurenz Moser II in Rohrendorf, between 1925 and 1928. After he took over the estate in 1929, he established the Lenz Moser vine nursery, and started to apply this new training system to larger vineyards initially leased from Melk monastery in Rohrendorf.
The larger area occupied by the vine, 3 to 4 square metres, and the stem height of between 1.2 and 1.4 metres not only allow better exposure to light and improved ventilation of the vines – they also bring economic advantages by enabling the mechanisation of vineyard work, efficient cultivation and low investments.
This training system firmly established itself after the Second World War. The Lenz Moser “high culture” method is now used in 90 % of Austria’s vineyards and enjoys popularity in many wine-growing areas both in Europe and overseas.
In 1970, Lenz Moser III was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, for his services. In 1975, Dr Rudolf Kirchschläger, President of Austria at the time, awarded him the title “Professor”.
The winery in Rohrendorf, close to Krems, has always been the heart of the estate. Rohrendorf lies to the east of Krems, in the “Kremstal” wine-growing area. Vines have been growing on the loess terraces in the area around Rohrendorf for almost 2,000 years.
The estate of Lenz Moser winery is one of the oldest wine-growing estates in the village.
Green vineyard
Today, Lenz Moser can look back at 40 years of scientific work in the field of economic viticulture. The vineyards cover a total area of 74 hectares on the two leased wine-growing estates of the Knights of Malta in Mailberg and of Siegendorf monastery, and have been farmed entirely according to ecosensitive guidelines since 1997.
As early as 1978, ecological comparison tests in the castle wine-growing estate of the Knights of Malta in Mailberg initiated ecosensitive management of the vineyard on a grand scale. Two dissertations at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (DI Dr Andreas Schäfer and DI Dr Rudolf Danner) formed the basis for the progressive change-over of the Mailberg facilities into a ecosensitive wine-growing estate.
At Lenz Moser, a “green vineyard” means:
- Quality before quantity
- Organic fertilizers
- Living soil
Ecology today
The ecological approach in the vineyard has also been extended to the production stages of winery technology and packaging. According to the maxim of “Wine should stay as wine”, a special bottling method has been developed. During all processes, from the barrel to the bottle, the wines are carefully protected against any contact with oxygen. This means that much less sulphur needs to be added as a preservative than is standard. This saves around 1,500 kg of sulphur per year – a considerable feat.
Wine-growing estates and vineyard area
Lenz Moser works exclusively with winemakers and winemaker cooperatives in Lower Austria and Burgenland. The company enjoys long-term cooperation with these winemakers, sometimes spanning decades, such as with the Lower Austrian Genossenschaftsweinkeller, formerly known as Winzerhaus, since the summer of 1998. The winemakers work according to agreed quality standards and are supervised by Lenz Moser oenologists.
Lenz Moser also runs Siegendorf monastery winery (Leithaberg, Burgenland) and the castle wine-growing estate of the Knights of Malta in Mailberg (Weinviertel, Lower Austria), which has 75 hectares of vineyards in total.
Lenz Moser Sustainability Report
2020
Introduction
Lenz Moser winery is a partner to the Austrian wine trade, and is the most important marketer of high-quality Austrian wine in Austria and abroad.
With this unequivocal commitment to high-quality Austrian wine, we back up the around 2,500 winemakers in Lower Austria and Burgenland that work with Lenz Moser.
The commitment to Austria means that Lenz Moser, for its part, can trust in the vineyards being carefully managed in the future too, and can rest assured that the highest quality grapes will be produced for us.
4 areas
The main beneficiaries of this partnership with our winemakers are the customers of Lenz Moser. They can rely on every bottle of Lenz Moser containing a piece of Austria – and on Austria staying there. That is why the motto at Lenz Moser winery is: “Lenz Moser is Austria’s wine!”
Our measures for sustainability are divided into four areas:
- “Green” production in the vineyard
- Measures for energy, the climate and the environment
- Employees
- Social commitment
1. “Green” production in the vineyard
The vineyards of Lenz Moser and its wine-growing partners are run predominantly according to KIP guidelines. KIP stands for “controlled integrated production” and is a very close-to-nature form of agriculture. Integrated wine-growing is a production method for the economic production of high-quality grapes, wine and other grape products. The main focuses are on the protection of human health, consideration of the production principles and of the environment.
The objective is to interfere as little as possible in the ecological balance. Integrated production therefore keeps the pollutant emissions far enough under the economic threshold to protect plants yet ensure high quality and an adequate yield.
This method of integrated production is regularly inspected by means of IP controls by AMA (Agrarmarkt Austria) carried out at the grape-producing wine-growing estates which receive grants for the IP wine. These inspections are spot checks; the wine-growing estate must expect an inspection at any time. The estate manager or a suitably informed person must be present at the inspection.
The inspector is granted access to all relevant documents such as invoices, receipts, records, land register maps, areas applied for, company buildings and storerooms in which resources, means of production and records are stored. Violations of the KIP guidelines are severely punished and, above all, have serious financial consequences for the estate.
2. Measures for energy, the climate and the environment
Our commitment Austria is ongoing throughout the processing of the grapes, the bottling process and the selection of our suppliers.
As prescribed and unchanged by nature, the grapes for all our wines are harvested at a distance of no further than 120 kilometres from the headquarters in Rohrendorf, close to Krems.
Equally important are short transportation distances when selecting our suppliers for important materials, such as glass and cardboard boxes, which make up about 98 % of the materials. Both of these materials come from Lower Austrian and Upper Austrian companies: glass is produced practically on our doorstep, coming from Pöchlarn, Lower Austria, just 40 kilometres from us, and from Kremsmünster in Upper Austria.
The composition of glass, cardboard boxes, labels and capsules is of special importance to us. Working in conjunction with our suppliers, we have succeeded in using materials which, thanks to savings in weight or composition, are more environmentally friendly.
When it comes to glass, we now use wine bottles weighing only 412 to 500 g for 1- and 0.75-l bottles. This equals a perceptible reduction compared to standard wine bottles. In addition to this saving, the recycling rate in Austria is 85 %, which easily surpasses the EU average of 68 %.
Eight-corner cardboard is used for shipping boxes, saving us around 7 % of the cardboard weight. Yet increasing their stability. Our cardboard supplier is certified according to the PEFC criteria. What is more, one type of cardboard – Testliner – at Lenz Moser winery is made from recycled paper.
We are one of the few wine-growing estates to still use wet-glue labels for our labels (application using an environmentally-friendly wet glue), meaning that no carrier film has to be produced and disposed of as is the case with today’s standard self-adhesive labels.
For the capsule, we use plastic instead of production-intensive tin, making a considerable contribution towards the preservation of the environment.
We are particularly proud of our bottle top. Our MCA screw top has been in use since 1984 – we were the first company in Austria to use a screw top for quality wines. This special top weighs around two-thirds less than the standard Stelvin cap.
However, sustainability is not limited to just the materials – the machinery, storage facilities and the wine shop all employ measures for reducing the consumption of energy.
In 2013, the production department was equipped with a new bottling system, which works more economically and more energy efficiently than the previous model. Moreover, the production hall has a robust design and is insulated, meaning that it has a lower cooling requirement than other wineries. The intelligent installation of the machinery means that production is uninterrupted, from unloading the bottles through to packing the bottles. This results in considerable time savings without the necessity for intermediate storage, which in turn would require resources.
The storage facilities are arranged such that they are directly adjacent to the production department. This avoids long transportation distances and fuel costs, which is kind to the environment and the climate. The storage and production facilities only have north-facing windows, guaranteeing a natural incidence of light whilst avoiding heating-up by glazed surfaces.
3. Employees
Our personnel comprises almost exclusively full-time workers who have been working for us for decades.
Many activities are initiated to increase employee loyalty to the company:
- Invitation to company outings in conjunction with study trips
- Training and further education measures
- Educational trips to wine fairs, suppliers and wine-growing countries
- Regular meetings as part of the IFS
- Reward for suggestions to improve operating processes
- Invitation to the Christmas party, anniversary celebrations
4. Social commitment
Lenz Moser is also active in many other areas.
We focus our social engagement on the Hartheim Institute.
Social facilities are supported by the placement of packaging work or by buying wooden boxes for gift packs. In addition, many other charitable institutions are sponsored by Lenz Moser.
Families and mothers aren’t forgotten at Lenz Moser, either. Family-friendly working hours for mothers are par for the course at our company (e.g. part-time jobs).
We sponsor knowledge too. Knowledge about health is promoted by supporting the “Der Neue Jungbrunnen Wein” book project – translated, it means “Wine, the new fountain of youth”.
Partnerships with schools are also sponsored by Lenz Moser. Examples of such are the partnership with Krems School of Hotel Management, support of sommelier and tourism schools, and the provision of wine samples to help the Austrian Wine Academy.
This is complemented by donations to sports clubs (such as the UHK Krems to help promote competitive sports), fire stations, cultural events, and much more.
ARAplus – Sustainability partner of the
Lenz Moser winery:
The separate collection and recycling of packaging, above all by ARA AG, saves the environment over 500,000 tons of CO² per year, which corresponds to around 6% of the annual mileage of all registered cars in Austria.
ARA climate certificate
ARA AG collects packaging across Austria and recycles it for material or thermal purposes. In 2018, we released ARA AG’s packaging and made a valuable contribution to climate protection in the amount of 1,477 tons of CO2 equivalents. This corresponds approximately to the greenhouse gas emissions of 12,256,348 kilometers by car.