DEVELOPMENT OF STYLE DIVERSITY

Visitors to Austria often experience their first Grüner Veltliner at a Viennese Heuriger. “Heuriger”, directly translated, means “this year’s” and the word is also synonymous for a wine tavern where they serve typical hearty rustic meals and the current year’s jug wine along with it. The wine is light, fresh, and fairly high in acidity with a slight youthful prickle. You can still find this style of Grüner Veltliner, but most of it continues to be quaffed young at local country inns on the outskirts of Vienna. Since it still has its justification on a hot summer day this style is represented in export by Bründlmayer’s L&T (leicht & trocken), Jurtschitsch-Sonnhof’s GrüVe, or Loimer’s “Lois”.
The second style of Grüner Veltliner is the most common and can be enjoyed for up to five years or more. It is picked riper, from restricted harvests, and sourced from south facing slopes of decomposing metaphoric rock. This medium-bodied style is shows the typical primary aromas of Grüner Veltliner, which is often reminiscent of white and green peppercorn, grapefruit, and Granny Smith apples.

After the end of WWII, some of the larger, more successful Austrian wineries had the foresight and capacity to archive a quantity of their Grüner Veltliners and began making comparisons. As the aging potential of GV was recognized, these wineries began experimenting and documenting differences between soils, aspects, clones, vine age, trellising systems, and vinification methods. The 1980’s brought a full-fledged shift in attitude on the part of wine producers and a third style of GV developed. These full-bodied, concentrated, spicy wines are made to accompany more refined cuisines and are worthy of aging.

GV COUNTRY

The province called Niederösterreich (Lower Austria) is with the exception of a few small pockets, white wine country. More than half of Austria’s wines come from the eight wine districts within this province. During the day the sun shines on hillsides of heat-retaining crystalline and metamorphic rocky soils such as weathered primary rock, loess, slate, and gneiss. Warm air reaches into the region from Hungary’s Pannonian steppe to the east. At night the vineyards are cooled down by both the Danube River and fresh breezes from the wooded countryside to the north and west. With an average yearly precipitation between 500 and 600 mm and a vegetation period of up to 200 days, grape aromas benefit from a long ambient growing season.

I recently visited the Pfaffl Winery in Austria’s largest wine district the Weinviertel, just northeast of Vienna. Roman and Adelheid Pfaffl originally produced just enough wine on their small mixed-agricultural farm to still the thirst of the guests at their Heuriger. As demands for their peppery Grüner Veltliner grew, so did their interest in becoming a full-time winery. The Pfaffl family vineyards have grown from a meager 1.5 hectares to 40 and the Heuriger has long been leased out. Roman Pfaffl explained to me that Grüner Veltliner is grape variety that is fairly unproblematic in the vineyard, disease resistant and able to adapt to a large variety of soils. To keep quality high it is necessary to prune rigorously. “What Grüner Veltliner definitely needs is a good location on a south-facing slope. It’s important to remove foliage on the shaded side of the vines, but some leaf protection is necessary to keep the Grüner Veltliner grapes from getting sunburned on the south side.” Perhaps the most typical Grüner Veltliners come from wineries like Pfaffl in the Weinviertel, but there are also excellent examples from the Traisental and Donauland districts. The crisp fruit and incomparable peppery bouquet make quite an appetizing treat. Young winemakers like Bernhard Ott are bringing new dynamic into these sleepy untouched regions of Austria.

Bründlmayer, Hirsch, and Loimer are just three of the top wineries located in the hilly Kamptal district embedded between the Danube River and the Manhart Mountain. Kremstal district wines from Nigl, Sepp Moser or Salomon-Undhof come from terraced slopes that hug the southern bank of the Danube under the imposing baroque Göttweig monastery. Here Grüner Veltliner is allowed to reach full physiological ripeness and fascinating terroir characteristics appear. Grüner Veltliners from zoisite-amphibolite soils of decomposing granite consisting of gneiss, mica-schist, and loess bring Grüner Veltliners that are full-bodied, high in alcohol, concentrated, and very spicy. The grapefruit flavor of Grüner Veltliner changes into exotic pineapple, roasted almond, and mango as it ripens. These wines have incredible aging potential (10 years or more) and sometimes benefit from 10-30% barrel fermentation. This new wave Austrian style often has as much as 13.5% alcohol, but with just a whisper of oak and a refreshing acidity (retained during the cool nights), the wines rarely appear too plump or blowsy.

Wachau is the most famous of Austria’s wine districts and home to powerful single-vineyard GVs labeled “Smaragd” which are reminiscent of a spicier version of a great white Burgundy from Meursault or Puligny Montrachet. As in Kamptal and Kremstal the Guyot vine training system is preferred on the rocky terraces. Trunks are kept low so the grapes hang close to the soil and can fully absorb the radiated heat. 6,000 vines per hectare and harvests of less than 45 hl per hectare are the norm. Loyal fans often claim they will beg, borrow or steal to get their favorite single vineyard bottlings from famous boutique wineries like F.X. Pichler, Knoll, and Hirtzberger. Freie Weingärtner Wachau is possibly one of the best wine cooperatives worldwide offering incredibly consistent wines from over 600 hectares of vineyards. Nikolaihof is Austria’s leader in organic wine, proving that truly great wines can be made while adhering to controversial biodynamic viticultural practices.

NEW WINES IN THE OLD WORLD

It is curious that despite its vastly different climate and grape varieties, that Austrian has been viewed in the international wine world as an annex to Germany. The success of Grüner Veltliner finally marks Austria coming out from under its neighbor’s shadow. By rediscovering its own identity and discovering the potential of its own native grape varieties, Austria sets a new trend. It is refreshing to find an old world country developing stylish versatile wines that rely on old autochthon varieties rather than creating yet another brand of an international classic.