Under the sign of the lion: the story of Leonis Blend

Every wine in our cellar has a maker. The Leonis Blend has a lion.

In 1997, Heribert Bayer made a red cuvée at his winery in Neckenmarkt, in Mittelburgenland — Austria's heartland for serious red wine — and named it after his star sign: Leo. In Signo Leonis, "under the sign of the lion." It became the wine the Bayer name was built on.

It is a blend of Blaufränkisch — Austria's noble red, savoury and peppery, with the structure of a Syrah and the perfume of a Pinot — rounded with Zweigelt and Cabernet Sauvignon. The fruit comes from old vines whose roots reach deep beneath the Neckenmarkt slopes; the wine spends two years in new French oak. The result is dark-fruited, cedary and firm — built to age a decade or more.

The critics noticed. The 2019 In Signo Leonis was awarded 98 points by Falstaff, Austria's leading wine authority, with the 2017 close behind at 95 — and the cuvée has been decorated at home and abroad for years. It sits, comfortably, among the top red wines of Austria.

Then came the question that started Zeronimo: what if you took this wine — not a cheap base wine, but the 98-pointer — and removed only the alcohol? The answer became the first 98-point wine ever dealcoholised. The Leonis Blend in our cellar is that wine: In Signo Leonis, with the alcohol gently distilled away and the perfume left intact.

If you drink Australian, here's the neighbourhood it lives in. This is not a big, fruit-forward red. It is savoury and structured — closer in spirit to a cedary, cool-climate Cabernet from Coonawarra or Margaret River: dark fruit framed by cedar, fine grippy tannin and a firm line of acidity, built to cellar for a decade. Restrained, savoury-led and long — the opposite of a fruit bomb. It simply happens to be alcohol-free.

Pour it as you would any serious red: decanted, at cellar temperature, beside lamb, beef or a hard cheese.

Shop the Leonis Blend, or explore Zeronimo.