Wine Notes
Austria Wine Notes — 03/12/2008
Austria did not deserve the bad reputation it earned in the mid 1980s, this was due to an elaborate fraud perpetrated by just a handful of people. The result was catastrophic, initially, however living it down though has a dynamising effect on the country's wine producers. Now they are focused, ethical and on a mission.
The wines of Austria are from the east of the country - The Danube Valley, around Vienna, from the edge of the Pannonian plain and from the hilly south-east in Styria.
Lower Austria
Wachau: The steep, terraced vineyards of the Danube upstream from Krems and Vienna is the classic vineyard of Austria. Warm air moves up from Hungary, the valley narrows and has several bends which present superb meso climates. Wines from villages of Durnstein and Loiben are superb, and Spitz and Joching are very good but more delicate due to the cooler nights and down-draughts from the forest plateau.
Riesling is the classic variety, but is only planted in top sites (around 10% of the total). Grüner Veltliner is the most common (around 55%). There’s also Müller-Thurgau, Chardonnay etc.
Soils are primary rock - decomposed granite, mica & gneiss, with sand by the river and deep loess, particularly on the south side.
Kremstal: A top region just east of Wachau, around the town of Krems with the same soils as Wachau. In the past Kremstal was considered superior to the Wachau, though it does not have the same steep terraces straight on to the river as has more influence from the hot continental climate of the Pannonian plain.
Kamptal: A region of rolling hills north of Krems up the valleys of the small rivers Kamp and Strass, with some steep sites such as Heiligenstein, with top wines here. Soils include granite. Stylistically the wines seem more mineral than the Wachau.
Vienna: The only European capital which contains large vineyards, and some such as the 'Nussberg' has a good reputation. Most of the wine is low quality and is swilled down at the estates' wine bars, much of it as "sturm' which is still fermenting or 'staubiger' which is still cloudy. However there are growers, most notably Weingut Christ and Weingut Weininger, who produce decent reds, good whites and the occasional sweetie. Burgundian varieties are thought to have the most potential.
Thermenregion: A warm region with many springs just south of Vienna. It gives solid reds and whites from limey & volcanic soils.
Weinvietal: North of Vienna. This area produces about a third of Austria's wine. In the past this was all thin and acidic but quality has increased substantially in the last 10 years or so.
Burgenland
Neusiedlersee region is the Hungarian plain side of the Neusiedlersee. It has a continental climate with hot summers. In the long autumns warm days are combined with cold nights to give ripe reds (particularly Blaufrankish) and balanced whites from a whole range of varieties. Near the lake there are mists and autumn fogs which allow, even guarantee, the development of botrytis on the grapes. Illmitz, (down by the lake), has emerged as a great sweet wine village. Eiswein is made most years and Schilfwein, made from rted or white grapes dried on lake reeds is made too.
Neusiedlersee-Hugelland is the great traditional Burgenland area. Rust's vineyards in particular are well exposed. Good reds and dry whites come from the higher slopes and superb sweeties (originally perhaps similar to Tokaj, but now richer and less acidic) are from lower, lake-side climate sites. Foreign wine drinkers who may know the sweet wines of Feiler-Artinger, Peter Schand, Heidi Shrock et al will be surprised to learn that over half their production is red, and very pleased to see just how good it is. (The Pinot Noir is our hot tip).
Mittelburgenland, Sudbergenland & Styria
These are further south. Mittelburgenland is the warmest place in Austria and is producing increasingly interesting reds. Styria is a beautiful region where you will find very good whites, in particular Sauvignon Blanc, but also some delicate Gewürtz, Chardonnay & Riesling.
Austrian wine language
Austrians sometimes hyphenate the village with the vineyard, so the top vineyard in the village of Langenlois in Kamptal is the ‘Langenloiser-Heiligenstein’. Some find this clumsy and have reverted to a custom of leaving off the village name and using an old word for top vineyard 'Ried', first. - Thus the 'Langenloiser-Heiligenstein' would be called the ‘Ried Heiligenstein’.
In much of the country, the German grades of Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese and Beerenauslese and Trockenbeenauslese are used. These grades refer to the amount of sugar in the grapes when harvested. Kabinett, Spatlese and Auslese would these days generally be dry, and described as 'Trocken'. Beerenauslese and Trockenbeenauslese are rarities which are intensely sweet. In Austria a Beerenauslese will generally be made for bunches which are only partially affected by botrytis (noble rot). It is the Trockenbeenauslese that is made entirely from the shrivelled berries, (literally dry selected berries).
There is also Ruster Ausbruch, which has a great historic reputation and was once the rival of Tokaji. It is only from the village of Rust by the Neusiedlersee and is a superior Beerenauslese or Trockenbeenauslese. It may have once had a Tokaji-like character and some growers have allowed a slight oxidisation and higher alcohol than normal in a BA or TBA. The growers all agree that Ausbruch should always a very good and intensely sweet botryris wine.
Eiswein is made from frozen grapes generally in the run to to christmas. Ideally the grapes are clean and ripe and have been hit by the first, very hard frost. The frozen grapes are pressed whist frozen with the ice staying in the press and the concentrated juice, high is sugar and acid run off. Most growers do NOT consider it to be the top sweet wine.
The Wachau has special names for the quality grades. These are:
Steinfeder = These wines are dry & light, the way most Austrians like to drink their everyday white wines. To international tastes they are acidic and lacking in concentration. They are 'Qualitatswein' grade but are un-chaptalized. Steinfeder is a kind of feathery grass found on the terraces.
Federspiel = These wines are also dry and on the light side but show considerably more concentration and tend to be nicely balanced and 'elegant'. Officially they are 'Kabinett' grade. 'Federspiel' means falconery which used to be very popular in the region amongst the nobility. There are also hawks flying around above the higher terraces where the wine might come from.
Smaragd = These are the full-on wines made from Spätlese / Auslese grade grapes. They are dry, ripe and full. Sometimes they can lack elegance and be too ripe, thus lacking in acidity and varietal character however this problem seems to be increasingly rare perhaps due to better harvest management. The name Smaragd refers to the green lizards found basking in the vineyards.
Whether you like the names or find them yet another layer of confusion, they are here to stay. They are however not used by all producers of Wachau wines. Those based outside the region in Kremstal and many smaller growers do not have the right to use the names.
