"If you hold the reins for too long, you don't teach the children responsibility"
09. june 2025
Danilo Steyer, the winemaker, says he never forced his children to do anything, so he is overjoyed that they have decided to stay on the farm. We spoke with Vaneja and Mark, who are still in school but help out on the property whenever they can.
Unlike Danilo Steyer, who was involved in the transformation of the agricultural and livestock farm, his children, Vaneja, 21, and Mark, 18, grew up around wine from a young age. The daughter is currently enrolled in a business wine school in Geisenheim, near Frankfurt, while the son is enrolled in a secondary school for viticulture and fruit growing near Vienna and is currently working with an Austrian winemaker, about a half-hour drive from home in Plitvice.
Vaneja is in charge of Facebook and Instagram
When she's at home, she naturally grabs hands for any kind of work. She enjoys assisting with sales, and if necessary, she runs tastings and also enjoys working in the vineyards. "I even did a harvest last year. "They use me for everything," she laughs. In addition, Vaneja introduced a new product in the house. With my father, of course. "For our high school thesis, a classmate and I created the champagne Melody. This is a light, drinkable sparkling wine made using the Charmat method, aimed at the younger generation. It is made from six different varieties: chardonnay, white pinot, and grey pinot, as well as light Riesling, Furmint, and a drop of Traminer, as it should be if we are already known as the House of the Fragrant Traminer."
Mark is interested in technological improvements
In 1993, the Steyers filled the first 1,200 bottles, and today the family produces approximately 80 thousand litres of wine per year on 20 hectares of vineyards. The Steyers cultivate wines in wooden containers in addition to the entry line, where wines ripen in stainless steel containers. The wines in the Steyer Mark line, named after their son Mark, ferment with native yeasts and are macerated for a short or long period of time. Not to mention Vaneja's own line, which includes predicate and sparkling wines.
The Latin proverb nomen est omen (meaning is in the name) is also confirmed by the son Mark, who is most interested in "his" wine line. "I haven't made my own wine yet, but my father and I are always collaborating on Steyer Mark wines. When he tries wine from the barrel, he frequently asks me how this or that wine could be improved, how long the maceration would be, or something else," Mark says.
When he's at home, he's involved in every aspect of the business, from the warehouse to the cellar to the vineyards. He is interested in what can be improved, what technology can be brought to the cellar, and what can be automated so that certain processes can be completed more quickly or without wasting unnecessary time.
"I would like to use technology to automate as much manual labour as possible. We will introduce machines into vineyards, for example, for leaf weeding or inter-variety processing. Many things, even in the cellar, can be replaced with technology," Mark explains.
They both inherited a passion for the Traminer
"I'll retire as soon as you're ready"
