Birgit Eichinger, Grüner Veltliner Ried Kammerner Lamm 1ÖTW, Kamptal 2020 (13.5%)

£32.68-£35.50 Justerini & Brooks, NY Wines

Sommeliers have led the charge in popularising wines made from Austria’s distinctive Grüner Veltliner grape variety around the world – since they were the first to seize on its remarkable aptitude for food partnerships, long apparent to Austrians. This light gold wine smells as comforting as fresh bread or newly washed linen; there’s plump, subdued orchard fruit, too, as well as a hint of soft vanilla and white-pepper spice. In the mouth it’s rich yet vivid, generous on the tongue yet nimble too, and you’ll see the same modulation in a flavour that begins sweetfruitedly and ends with a flourish of ripe acidity and a grind of subtle spice. This Kamptal classic would partner almost anything save red meat.

‘At the beginning, it was not easy to be a female winemaker,’ recalls the redoubtable Birgit Eichinger. ‘Often I was not taken seriously, though that quickly changed after I won my first awards.’

It was Eichinger’s winemaker father who, she says, ‘showed me the love for this profession at an early age’, and this led her to establish her own winery in 1992 with husband Christian (their daughter Gloria has since entered the fold and is jointly responsible for managing the estate and vinifying the wines).

The original 3.5ha of vineyards have blossomed to more than 16ha, with Grüner Veltliner accounting for 70% of production. ‘We don’t need a lot of different wines or varieties,’ says Eichinger. ‘We focus on the highest quality possible, and what is best suited to Kamptal.

‘Located on the southeastern part of the Heiligenstein mountain, the Ried Lamm vineyard reliably yields expressive, multi-layered Grüner Veltliner full of elegance and grace.’

As to the future? ‘I would like to make Grüner Veltliner even more popular around the world,’ states Eichinger. ‘It is often still underestimated by many, yet this award proves once again what Grüner Veltliner can achieve.’