Claus Preisinger – Puszta Libre 2023

from Gols in Burgenland Austria, makes the brand new Puszta Libre 2023, which quite simply is one of the best value natural red wines ever made!

What is Puszta Libre like?

Puszta Libre is a Beaujolais-style Austrian red blend made using Zweigelt and Sankt Laurent. Its made from super popular and very much respected producer Claus Preisinger, and you should definitely drink chilled as the label suggests “Gekühlt Servieren!”

It’s made in a homage to the quaffable Gamay style wines from France with some carbonic maceration and is so easy-going you can glug it down from the bottle… and sometimes we do!

Tasting Claus Preisinger’s Puszta Libre

This red wine is sooooo smooth. Soooo juicy. Soooo fruit forward with it’s forest fruit touches, but also with a touch more minerality, whilst still being fantastic glouglou. Puszta Libre 2023 has really exceptional value!

This 2023 vintage has an intriguing, green pepper, vegetal touch to it which gives it an added complexity and slight nice bitterness

Interesting fact about Puszta Libre

The name “Puszta Libre” refers to the actual plains of Hungary, which are super close to this Austrian winery, and are referred to as the Puszta.

Libre is Spanish for free, to invoke the feeling you get whilst sipping this juicy red wine. 

The bottle shape itself it iconic as not usually used in Burgenland Austria these das, and certainly not with the label so high up… however.. this decision was made because Claus Preisingers father actually used to produce bottled wines like this, which also had a label on the top of the neck!