My tastings this year focus on the 2009 vintage which is looking very promising for the white wines from Riesling and Austria’s signature grape, Grüner Veltliner. A warm, dry vintage, it has actually favoured Riesling a bit more, with some Veltliners crossing the thin line between rich and excessively soft. On the positive side, many of the lighter less expensive Veltliners will provide spectacularly good early drinking.
But in general I have a preference for the Rieslings which are both more aromatic and fresher in taste, with a good balance even at high ripeness. There are some lovely wines from the usual suspects such as Willi Bründlmayer in the Kamptal region (his Heiligenstein Lyra is a masterpiece of harmony and completeness), or Prager and Franz Hirtzberger in Wachau. But I’ve also tracked down some lesser-known estates with great bargains. Franz-Joseph Gritsch from the town of Spitz in the Wachau has a lovely range of Veltliners and Rieslings, and overdelivers also in the Federspiel categories (which will cost you less than 10€). Andreas Lehensteiner from Weissenkirchen has an attractively clean, firm style, and at 14€ his Hinterkirchen Riesling Smaragd is one of the region’s bargains. High up in a remote side valley in Viessling, Josef Gritsch of the Graben Gritsch estate is making some impressively puristic mineral wines including a range of lovely Gelber Muskatellers (it’s rare to see so much minerality in a Muscat), and at 14€ his Setzberg Riesling Smaragd 2009 might well be the best bargain of the fair.
There were some very good Veltliners, too, especially at the Erste Lage presentation: 2009 is the first vintage for this new category, roughly equivalent to the French grand cru and German Grosses Gewächs (see here for my post on this). Introduced in the regions of Kamptal, Kremstal, Traisental and Wagram by the private vintners’ association Traditionsweingüter Österreich, Erste Lage is a winning idea: the concept is clear (the best vineyard sites are classified and distinguished) and the quality level of the wines is high.
I'm glad there might be a lot of common in our tastes:) I participated at Vie Vinum as well.I really liked the Prager rieslings (of that you refer in your more recent post) Achleiten had explosive aromas of loveable fruits, Klaus had more masculine character, very complexly mineral , hard to imagine these 2 wines of from neighboring sites. Also glad to read of 2 wines that I never heard before, but really liked at the fair: Graben Gritsch Riesling Sm. Setzberg, it was surprisingly very good, it seemed to be in the class of the wines worth 10 Euros more a bottle. My other "discovery" was Petra Unger. I didn!t plan to taste there, I was just waiting for my fellow, and went to the closest table just to taste something during this time. And wow…very nice wines, the Riesling Gaisberg was also fantastic, but the best was the mentioned Oberfeld Alte Reben gruner. For 12-13 Euros, extremely good price for value. Mentioning gruner veltliners, did you taste Bernhard Ott? If yes how did you like? For me I tasted there the most harmonic, balanced gruners, that were not the most complex, but the greatest joy to consume. They were so gentle, and smooth that even the high class wachauers seemed rough after that..
Hi Drbarta
I agree on Petra Unger, her wines were among the standouts of the Erste Lage tasting (not enough room in the post to mention all good wines).I didn't have a great tasting at Ott though. Found the wines a bit too rich and low in acids for my tastes. I'd agree with your description but 'smooth' isn't exactly what I was looking for in the 2009s. And I wasn't thrilled by the experimental amphora wine. Too shy and 'normal' for me. A far cry from the fascinating amphora wines from Muster and Werlitsch in Styria.