Don’t overlook the excellence of Austria’s wine
Austria was on the menu at a recent tasting held in Edinburgh’s Timberyard hosted by German-born Austrian wine expert Anne Krebiehl MW.
It was a fascinating insight into Austria’s diversity and quality – Austrian wine really deserves to be better known outside its own country.
“Modern Austria offers some of the best quality wines in Europe at the lowest yields,” says Krebiehl. “Sizewise Austria is small with 46,515 hectares of vineyards, not much larger than Champagne, Burgundy or New Zealand.
“It is an industry that really cares a lot, Austria now has the strictest wine laws in the world – the wine industry completely reinvented itself after the ethylene glycol scandal of 1985,” says Krebiehl.
“They also care about sustainability. Today 147 of Austria’s small artisan family estates are certified organic – and some are biodynamic – which is over one fifth of producers,” she says.
Tasting through Krebiehl’s personal selection of 18 fizz, dry white, red and sweet wines, what really struck me was that this country is a hidden gem.
Austria’s dry whites combine a vivid freshness and ripe fruit potency, thanks to its cold Alpine winters and warm hot summers, with heat drawn from the east from Hungary’s Pannonian Plain, and cool nights.
Stylewise, they remind me of the rich aromatic wines of France’s Alsace region (which has a similarly strong organic focus), but Austrian whites have more body and power – at their best matched with food.
Gruner veltliner (known as Gru-v) covers 30 per cent of plantings – grown everywhere from Vienna to Burgenland – but the grape is at its best on fine windblown loess soils of Wagram west of Vienna north and south of the Danube. “In contrast”, says Krebiehl, “riesling is only planted where it should be in Austria.” On Wachau’s steep slopes in poor soils it reaches an intensity and power which few German producers can achieve.
My favourite of the tasting was from a grape which Krebiehl calls “the sleeper”. Austria’s native blaufrankisch grape, often referred to as the ‘pinot noir of the East’, grown on limestone and schist really reflects where it comes from – best in southern Burgenland (in DAC wine zones, Leithaburg and Eisenberg).
Sparkling Niederosterreich: Rosé Brut Sekt Reserve NV Fred Loimer
Austrian fizz is not well known, but they have been making it since 1842 and today make 12 million bottles, mostly drunk by the Austrians themselves. Pale pink, yeasty notes, delicacy with good complexity, long dry finish.
£18.90, Oddbins
Dry white Wagram: Gruner Veltliner Feuersbrunn ‘Der Ott’ 2017 Bernhard Ott
Bernhard Ott is also known as ‘Mr Veltliner’. Celery and fennel notes, fabulous palate, great mouthfeel, complexity and richness.
£25, Savage Selection
Thermenregion: Rotgipfler Ried Satzing 2017 Johanneshof Reinisch
Rare rotgipfler grown in Satzing vineyard’s rich brown soils is fabulously rich, textured with citric fruits, with creamy intensity, smoky notes, and leesy succulent mouthfeel. It often disappears in blends with zierfandler, but rotgipfler on its own like this can be sensational.
£26, Astrum Wine Cellars; Handford Wines; Solent Cellar
Wachau: Smaragd Riesling Ried Loibenberg 2015 Emmerich Knoll
Superb example from very steep warm site giving floral appley nose, very rich intensity, deliciously ripe rounded and elegant finish. Smaragd indicates the ripest category in Wachau. £40, Raeburn Fine Wines; Berry Bros & Rudd; AG Wines
Red Niederosterreich: St Laurent ‘Alte Reben’ 2015 Ebnerebenauer
Light raspberry notes, soft, silky, rounded, spicy elegant example of 60-year-old St Laurent vines from heavy loam soil.
£20, The Wine Society
Carnuntum: Zweigelt ‘Rubin Carnuntum’ 2017 Franz & Christine Netzl
Ripe cherry fruits, rich rounded fleshy, velvet smooth tannins – a lovely example of Austria’s most important red grape, zweigelt, here grown south of the Danube in new DAC Carnuntum.
£17.89, Alpine Wines
Burgenland: Blaufrankisch Lutzmannsburg 2015 Moric
Stunning blaufrankisch, a blend of seven parcels of old vines, showing the quality of this superb grape: lifted cherry and tea aromas, very intense, concentrated, rich with beautiful finesse and fine tannins – one of Burgenland’s highest priced wines.
£65, Fine & Rare Wines; Cru World Wine; Clark Foyster
Sweet Burgenland: Ruster Ausbruch Cuvée 2010 Feiler-artinger
500 buckets of this wine was all that was needed in 1681 to persuade Emperor Leopold to make Rust a Royal Free Town. Toffee caramel notes, apricot richness, unctuous sweetness freshened with acidity. ■ £31 hf bt, Fortnum & Mason; £33, Tanners Wines; £38.50 hf bt, Bottle Apostle for 2016 vintage