Beyond borders
A TOUR OF AUSTRIA’S BORDER-LYING WINE REGIONS UNCOVERS BEGUIILING WINES, A COMPELLING HISTORY AND AN INCREDIBLY BRIGHT FUTURE.
Austria’s eastern borderlying wine regions are full of surprises.
THEY SAY that wine should show its terroir, reflecting in the glass everything of its site, soil, climate, conditions, growers and makers. Ultimately, it should reveal its precise place in the world. This age-old wine philosophy sounds simple enough in theory, but other more intangible elements are always wrapped up in there too. It wasn’t until I stood in Austria’s Eisenberg region, on the Hungarian border in the southeast, and tasted its wines, that I considered how complex this concept could be.
The spectacular landscape of Eisenberg, south of Austria’s Burgenland wine region, has been a place of turmoil. Since a border first separated Austria and Hungary in 1921 – after 1000-odd years of cross-country harmony – the area has seen unbelievable atrocities. After losing the ability to trade with, and visit, old friends across the border, things worsened when the Iron Curtain arose after WWII, complete with minefields, watchtowers and armed guards. Brute force ruled the wider region and the Iron Curtain remained in place for nearly 40 years.
And yet, Eisenberg’s blaufrankisch could be described as joyful. These light red wines almost sing in the glass. With the local producers working to capture the distinctively high levels of acidity and minerality in their soils, the resulting wines are vibrant and pure, red-fruited and bright, with an unmistakable spicy energy to them. It makes for a beautiful irony as I contemplate the horrors of this region’s past. Not only have these wines taken on everything
that went into their production, but it’s also as if they’ve absorbed the resilience and optimism of the people.
I’m getting carried away, of course, but it’s hard not to as I stand on the observation deck here, 415 metres above ground. Looking out over the vines to the Hungarian plains, it would be easy to assume this structure was built solely for enjoying the awe-inspiring view – particularly on the blue-sky day we visit – and not to remember this history. There is no longer any trace of the border, despite the last of it only coming down in 2007, and the region’s wine producers are embracing this new era, working to capture their special sites. “The goal is freshness,” says local winemaker Thom Wachter, as we sip on one of his wines. “It’s all about juicy reds, but with zingy acidity.” It’s this overriding sense of optimism that I get throughout Austria’s eastern border-lying wine regions. Everywhere we visit, it feels as though the producers are revelling in a new chapter. Appellations are being officiated, regional quality classes and systems are getting instated, producers are working with maturing vines and evolving their techniques, and the wines are shining. The elephant in the room for Austria has long been the controversy of the 1980s, when a number of cooperatives were caught adding glycol to their wines to meet demand for sweeter styles in neighbouring markets. These days, the scandal is addressed upfront, and the subsequent exponential lift in wine quality has been a brilliant result, thanks to a collaborative national wine industry.
Austria’s producers specialise in various grape varieties, but the diversity among styles – even within regions – is impressive. It’s not all light reds and aromatic whites here, either. The first surprise of the trip was in the Weinvertel region in the north, on the SlovakianCzech border, where we tasted a range of sekts. Among these sparklings were blanc de blancs, rosés made from pinot noir and the Austrian red grape zweigelt, plus other styles using 100 per cent gruner veltliner, the native white that’s so prominent in this region. Common traits among these sparklings were a green-apple freshness and, in a number of cases, an intriguing lick of saltiness that kept me going back for more.
Austria’s sekt producers are proud of their quality hierarchy, with Grosse Reserve, Reserve and Klassik making up the three-tier structure. Each class has clear parameters around the fruit’s origins and maturation times, and there’s no doubt the focus on these definitions has helped lift the collective quality. In addition to sparklings, the region also produces a range of white table wines, including gruner veltliner, the often-richer pinot blanc (known in Austria as weissburgunder), chardonnay, riesling and a range of reds too. Further south, we visit the imposing Schloss Hof palace, which dates back to the 1700s, for a tasting in one of its stately rooms. We’re treated to a range of wines from the surrounding Carnuntum region, which will soon become an official appellation, known in Austria as a DAC, or Districtus Austriae Controllatus. The region’s key focal varieties are zweigelt and Austria’s other great native red, blaufranksich, but whites such as gruner veltliner and chardonnay also do this region proud. The indigenous reds are the standouts here, with producers suggesting zweigelt is their most important variety. Typically, the best regional examples show dark cherry flavours and a white-pepper spice, but we see everything from bright, fresh and juicy styles to plusher, more savoury and brooding examples.
It’s this overriding sense of optimism that I get throughout Austria’s eastern border-lying wine regions. Everywhere we visit, it feels as though the producers are revelling in a new chapter.
For anyone expecting all of Austria’s countryside to resemble
The Sound of Music (confession: I did), then Neusiedlersee will surprise. About an hour south of Vienna, this area’s unexpectedly flat landscape, within the wider Burgenland region, reveals blocks of vines stretching out in uniform lines. To the untrained eye, they seemingly start and stop for no apparent reason. But there’s no need for rolling hills here as the Pannonian climate is ideal for growing wine grapes – think hot, dry summers and cold winters, with Lake Neusiedl and other bodies of water across the area providing a moderating effect. The results are best seen in various white blends and the zweigelts of the region, as well as the
captivating St Laurent. This variety is rare, even within Austria, and the Pittnauer Gerhard und Brigitte St Laurent Ried Rosenberg we try is a winner. Light and full of red fruits, but with spice and finesse, it’s a top choice for almost any meal – or when there’s no food at all. Austria’s embattled modern history, and that of its eastern neighbours, is never far from our minds, especially while visiting the bridge of Andau, which is just metres from the Hungarian border. At this spot, some 80,000 Hungarians risked everything to escape Soviet rule in the uprising of 1956, and fled to Austria, with the lucky ones making it through the swampy surrounds. Much like our experience in Eisenberg, we discover an overwhelmingly picturesque place, with the structure we stand on built much later to memorialise the original bridge and this important moment in time. As I watch the water drift by in the canal underfoot, with birdsong in the background, it’s hard to imagine this scene any other way.
It’s no surprise to learn that this region’s wine industry has endured its own hardships and hurdles along the way, but our next stop in Andau is yet another reminder of Austria’s bright winemaking era. In stark contrast to the stories we’ve just heard and the images they conjured, we arrive at the contemporary Scheiblhofer Winery. With its walls of glass, feature steelwork and rows of shiny tanks, this is the slickest and largest-scale operation we see, so it’s also impressive to learn that Scheiblhofer puts sustainability front and centre.
The landscape changes quickly from here as we travel further south into the Mittelburgenland region, where blaufrankisch is king. But while the vistas are more familiar, with their green hills and sloping vines, the wines we try are not. At family winery K+K Kirnbauer
– a more traditional cellar door than our previous stop – we sample a selection of the region’s blaufrankisch and others from neighbouring Sopron in Hungary, where the variety is known as kekfrankos. Many of the wines at this tasting are from the warmer 2015 vintage and, as a result, many are darker-fruited, denser and fuller-bodied than any other styles we have seen so far. Diversity reigns supreme. Austria’s wine regions all have their charms, but there’s no denying the outrageous beauty of Styria, further south again on the Slovenian border. Here lies the stuff of wine-touring dreams: rolling green hills, forested twists and turns, and historic wineries atop mountains. Extinct volcanoes are to thank for the unique landscape and soils, which best translate into aromatic whites, including welschriesling, pinot blanc, traminer and sauvignon blanc. Neighbouring Slovenia also has an influence, with its strong focus on quality orange, skin-fermented wines; we try several that
Austria’s wine regions all have their charms, but there’s no denying the outrageous beauty of Styria, further south again on the Slovenian border.
Here lies the stuff of wine-touring dreams.
get us all talking and repouring. From fresh and aromatic to textural and savoury, the extensive range of wines we see here showcase incredible versatility once more.
As of the 2018 vintage, Styria’s three winegrowing areas hold DAC status, and the wines from each one also now fall into one of three classes: Riedenwine (single vineyard), Ortsweine (villages) and Gebietsweine (regional). As seen in other regions on this tour, these newly refined parameters are clearly helping the local producers to lift their game. And with such major developments only happening so recently, quality will surely continue to rise.
To complete the Styrian experience, we visit Schloss Kapfenstein, a fortified castle that dates back to the
11th century. Now a hotel and restaurant, it’s run by the winemaking family Winkler von Hermaden, whose winery – Winkler-Hermaden – lies below this special spot. We settle into the courtyard at the former castle for a lunch of traditional fried chicken paired with a view of that picture-book horizon. It’s our last stop before heading back to Vienna and an incredibly idyllic setting that gets me thinking. It’s almost as if this region’s refreshingly bright wines not only reflect their sites, but also the future of Austrian wine. But there I go getting carried away again.