A waltz through Austria’s wine regions

In his latest post, our galavanting gadabout Geoffrey Dean heads to Austria, to sip on sprightly Grüner Veltliners and blackberry-scented Blaufrankisch in Mittleburgenland and Styria, the country’s southernmost wine region.

Fog rolls over the vines in Leutschach in Styria

It was fitting that the Austrian Wine Marketing Board announced earlier this month that Chris Yorke would succeed Willi Klinger as its managing director at the beginning of next year.

For, Yorke, who has been global marketing director of New Zealand Winegrowers for the past 15 years, is coming from a market which the Austrians have long admired, Indeed, Klinger freely admits the NZ template is one on which he modelled his vision for Austrian wine exports.

Put simply, that is the production of predominantly premium, or mid-market, wines that give winemakers the best chance of a decent margin and enhance Austria’s reputation as a producer of quality wines.

Klinger’s assertion at the Austrian Wine Summit in late May that his country’s wine industry is entering “a golden period” is backed up both by the latest export figures, and by the outstanding range and quality of wines that journalists and importers tasted during the biennial summit. First the stats: a record high of €170m of Austrian wine was exported in 2018, which is expected to rise by over 6% to €180m this year.

Riesling to be cheerful

Klinger predicts this figure will climb to €227m by 2024. Where Austrian wine in 2003 sold for an average price of 83 cents per litre, that had increased to €3.24 by last year.

Austria and New Zealand have much in common, being cool climate regions with plenty of higher altitude vineyards.

The cool air from the north is the most important factor in Austrian viticulture, according to Klinger, particularly as the average daily temperature in the growing season, which is 2°C than in the 1980s, is predicted to rise by another 1.4°C by 2050.

That could affect acid retention in grapes, but for the moment, vibrantly high levels of acidity are a feature of Austrian wines and their principal grapes, 67% of which are white.

Grüner Veltliner is the most planted, making up 31% of the country’s vines, followed by Zweigelt (14%), Welschriesling (7%) and Blaufrankisch (6.5%).

Some excellent examples of international varieties like Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and, of course, Riesling were also enjoyed during our voyage around Austria.

It began in Poysdorf, on the same latitude as Champagne and where Austrian sparkling wine production first started in 1980. While the Charmat tank method is employed for Sekt Klassik, most Austrian Sekt is made by the traditional method.

A minimum of 18 months on the lees is required for Sekt Reserve, and 30 months for Sekt Grosse Reserve. Two of the latter really stood out: Malat’s 2012 Blanc de Blancs (Chardonnay) which spent 62 months on its lees, and Steininger’s 2013 Riesling.

Steininger was the first to label a single vineyard site (or ‘Ried’), with this Heiligenstein offering being fermented in acacia and spending 45 months on its lees. Complex with great length, it was a fine advert for Austrian Sekt.

Poysdorf is situated in Weinviertel, Austria’s largest specified wine-producing region with 13,858 hectares under vine. Grüner Veltliner, well-known for its white pepper expression, is Weinviertel’s signature grape, and it was the first Austrian wine to be granted DAC status, in 2003.

The Weinviertel DAC Reserve designation brings with it real power, with Taubenschuss’ Gruner Veltliner Ried Tenn 2016 bristling with full-bodied concentration, together with impressive complexity and length.

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Wachau in autumn

Just to the south of Weinviertel lies Carnuntum, a wine region that has become highly regarded in a short space of time. Loam, loess and sandy gravels, together with a continental microclimate, make this an ideal location for red wines, with some of Austria’s best Zweigelt coming from here.

Lukas Markowitsch’s ‘Rubin Carnuntum’ 2017 stood out thanks to its approachable tannins, freshness, concentration and length. Another Markowitsch, Gerhard, makes a bigger Zweigelt with a lot more structure from his Ried Kirchweingarten site, it being the coolest in the area.

His 2015 Carnuntum Reserve, at 13.4% ABV, showed really good balance. Meanwhile, Robert Payr’s Cuvee Ried Hofleiner Buhl, 2015 Carnuntum Reserve, underlined how well a blend works of a third each of Zweigelt, Blaufrankisch and Merlot. Complex with good concentration, it had chalky tannins and plenty of structure.

The real epicentre of Blaufrankisch production, however, is south of Vienna in Mittelburgenland, very close to the Hungarian border. The warm, water-retentive loamy soils there are perfect for the variety, which has a black forest berry character and fine spice nuances.

Blaufränkisch grapes on the vine

Mittelburgenland is a popular destination for wine tourists, notably the Schaflerhof near Deutschkreutz, where our tasting of 16 leading examples of Blaufrankisch was a highlight of the visit.

These were split mainly into into Mittelburgenland DAC or DAC Reserve wines (with vineyard designation), with a few from elsewhere forming a nice contrast.

The overall quality was exceptional, but several merit a mention. The cold loamy soil of the Ried Durrau site, offering low pH and freshness, demonstrated how well Blaufrankisch can age. Franz Weninger’s 2009 DAC Reserve from there was superb, with firm but fine tannins, and notable concentration and length.

Juliana Wieder’s 2015 DAC Reserve from Ried Bodigraben had very silky tannins and a long finish. Examples from outside Mittelburgenland that impressed were an elegant 2015 from the higher and cooler Lutzmannsburg site, made by Roland Velich from ‘Alte Reben’ (very old vines of 80-plus years); and a fabulous Eisenberg DAC Reserve 2015 with much intensity, produced by Schiefer & Domaines Kilger.

Weninger found time to pop across the border in 2016 into Sopron, Hungary’s top region for Kekfrankos (as Blaufrankisch is known there) to produce a brilliant Ried Spern Steiner from vines planted in 1964.

Very attractive red fruit, beautifully integrated tannins, intensity of flavour and a long finish all combined beautifully in this wine, which was fermented in concrete and aged in old 500-litre casks.

Our final port of call – in Austria’s southernmost wine-producing region – was Steiermark (Styria), where the principal grape varieties are Welschriesling, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Traminer.

The owners of Schloss Kapfenstein, built on a dormant volcanic cone, laid on a tasting of 38 wines that was as splendid as the views all around. Several Sauvignon Blancs showed very well, notably the Schloss’s own Vulkanland Steiermark DAC 2018, as well as a Sudsteiermark DAC from the same year, the Lackner-Tinnacher family’s Gamlitz site.

Minerality, a long finish and tropical fruit were a feature of both. Sabathi Erwin’s Leutschach 2017 from Sudsteirmark 2017 was more restrained and elegant, with a creaminess on the palate.

A fine 2018 Gewürztraminer from Vulkanland Steiermark, made by the Winkler-Hermaden family, was a reminder of the quality and great diversity of Austria’s wines, and the enormous progress made by the industry since entry into the EU in 1995.

At that time, according to Christian Zechmeister of Wein Burgenland, Austrian oenology schools laughably taught would-be winemakers that malolactic fermentation was a fault in red wines. Now, those same schools are very much in unison with the rest of the winemaking world.