When young Markus Huber took over his parent’s wine estate in Austria’s Traisental, it comprised of only four hectares. Today, the estate is ten times the size with a modern winery, where Markus produces some of the best wines in Austria. A proud winemaker and winner of numerous prestigious awards, his true passion lies with dry white wines made using Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. And did we mention he is a bit of a heartthrob too?

The climate in the Traisental, where Markus is based, ensures wines that are distinctive and aromatic with a mineral structure and both soils and climate are extremely suited to the two varieties. Most of Markus’s wines mature in stainless steel but he also produces a Reserve level that sees partial maturation in large wooden barrels.

The various vineyard sites allow Markus to work with the different expressions of his grapes and for our experiment, he selected a number of different samples of Grüner Veltliner, which he can bring to the blend. The Grüner Veltliner is not often seen as part of a blend, so we are very pleased it is playing such a crucial role in Disrupt. It actually ended up forming the largest constituent of the blend but we’re not sure if that’s simply down to Markus’ persuasive nature or his boyish charm. Whatever the reason, it works a treat.

Emmanuel Laurent is definitely the tallest of our trio of winemakers and also the only former basketball player. Emmanuel is the oenologist and winemaker with top Burgundy estate Antonin Rodet and has a very varied career, taking him from Burgundy, where he studied for the DNO (National oenology diploma) after taking a degree in Biochemistry at Nancy University. His wine career has seen him working for Château de Rully in Burgundy, the King Estate Winery in Oregon and a number of commercial positions in the wine departments of Auchan and Promodés/Carrefour, some of France’s leading retailers. We suspect Emmanuel was rather a good student. 

Finally, he returned to his home in Burgundy and Château de Rully with Antonin Rodet. Here he works with a team of 10 people to ensure the highest standards of winemaking. Antonin Rodet owns a number of estates throughout Burgundy, which was key to our experiment. It allowed Emmanuel and the other winemakers to play around with the various expressions of Chardonnay before settling on the Macon as their favoured Chardonnay element in Disrupt. Emmanuel is no stranger to blending wines as he routinely blends Chardonnays from the different estates. He did admit to a certain trepidation before the project but realised as soon as he tasted the other wines, something pretty special could be done here. And he loves a good challenge.

 Fortunately for us, Emmanuel has a penchant for white wines and says: “they appear easy to make, but are actually very complex”. 

Giorgio was born under the vines on the hills around Trento where his father was a wine grower. His passion for viticulture was instilled from a very young age and Giorgio attended one of the best and oldest schools of oenology, San Michele all’Adige in the Veneto. As an oenologist, Giorgio now travels the world and feels very much at home in Elqui, Chile where he runs one of his biggest projects at Viña Falernia.

His winemaking is very much inspired by the old world though and he has travelled extensively through the French wine regions – exploring classical Bordeaux, learning about cool climate Syrah in the Rhône and getting to grips with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in Burgundy. Giorgio was also a pioneer in bringing the Champagne method back to Trentino. It’s this intrepid character, constantly looking for something different and new, but really understanding the traditions of winemaking that make him such a natural choice for our own experiment of creating a pan-European wine, a super-blend made by passionate individual winemakers who are not afraid to push the boundaries. No wonder he is always on the phone. We even had to prise him away from it so he could attend the unveiling of the final Disrupt blend.

Giorgio selected a number of samples from his own small estate in northern Puglia. There he works with just one variety, Falanghina. He describes it as both very interesting and challenging. Falanghina is not normally a wine that would be blended but Giorgio is never one to follow convention and that makes him the perfect candidate to complete the Disrupt trinity.