Gölles: From a Styrian Orchard to a Vinegar Manufactory
At the foot of Riegersburg Castle in southeastern Styria, the Gölles family built a fruit-growing tradition into a vinegar manufactory. The story begins not with vinegar, but with an orchard: in the late 1950s, Alois Gölles senior was among the early farmers in the region to plant apple trees. During the 1960s, orchards gradually replaced livestock on the family farm, and blackcurrants joined the apple crop.
From orchard fruit to a family craft
Alois Gölles junior grew up among those trees. At 14, he began agricultural training at HBLA Klosterneuburg, an Austrian school with a long connection to fruit growing and food production. After graduating in 1979, he started transforming the family harvest into fruit wine and juice, then into fruit spirits.
Vinegar became a larger part of the work during the 1980s. Visits to traditional vinegar houses around Modena introduced Gölles to the long, patient barrel aging associated with balsamic vinegar. The family applied that idea to its own Styrian fruit. In 1984, Gölles made an apple balsamic vinegar from concentrated and fermented apple must, then allowed it to mature for eight years in oak. That product became a foundation of the manufactory's vinegar range.
Why fruit matters
Gölles begins with ripe fruit rather than treating fruit flavor as an afterthought. In the vinegar process described by the producer, selected fruit is washed, crushed, and pressed. Yeast first converts the fruit's natural sugar into alcohol. A vinegar culture and oxygen then transform that alcohol into acetic acid. Time in wooden barrels develops the finished vinegar further.
The barrel cellar now contains more than 1,500 oak barrels. Depending on the style, Gölles says its vinegars rest in wood for periods ranging from two to 20 years. During longer aging, some liquid evaporates through the barrel, naturally concentrating balsamic vinegar while its acidity and aroma evolve.
That fruit-first approach is also why the range extends beyond familiar apple and grape vinegars. The manufactory ferments raspberries, quince, pears, and even tomatoes. Each begins with the character of its source fruit, then follows the same basic progression from juice to alcohol to vinegar.
A Styrian sense of place
Gölles is based in Riegersburg, in the volcanic hill country of southeastern Styria. The surrounding region is closely associated with orchards and fruit cultivation, making it a natural setting for a producer whose work depends on careful selection and processing of ripe fruit.
The castle above Riegersburg is the dramatic landmark, but the quieter landscape below it is central to the Gölles story: family orchards, harvested fruit, fermenting juice, and rows of wooden barrels. Across several decades, the family's work moved from growing fruit to preserving its character in spirits and vinegar.
Explore Gölles vinegars at European Deli
European Deli currently carries several active Gölles vinegars made in Austria. At the time of publication, the products below were listed as in stock:
- Gölles Balsamic Apple Vinegar — the apple-based balsamic connected to the manufactory's 1984 turning point.
- Gölles Balsamic Pear Vinegar — a fruit-based balsamic vinegar made from pears.
- Gölles Tomato Vinegar — vinegar made from tomato juice, reflecting the producer's willingness to work beyond conventional vinegar fruits.
- Gölles Raspberry Vinegar — fermented from ripe raspberry juice.
- Gölles Quince Vinegar — a fruit vinegar built around quince.
For Gölles, the thread connecting these bottles is straightforward: begin with good fruit, guide it through fermentation, and allow time and wood to shape the result.
