Of course, it’s only because I’m old that it’s relevant, but I ignored Austria for ages. Until Gruner Veltliner became the somm’s pet, but by then, I stuck to what I knew for collecting. Wasn’t into German GGs until very recently.
I was very excited by this article as I’m going to MAST in Vienna. But it seems like their list doesn’t intersect those listed here.
Any suggestions for dry Riesling on their list (or a Gruner)?
(List is here: Weine - MAST Weinbistro, click on Weinkarte)
I always understood that the sweet, pradikat Rieslings from Germany were more well known and famous. Thus, coming into the wine scene I sort of understood that there was some precedent for the disparity. There was some momentum for people to prefer the many famous producers and vineyards from Germany. The wines always drank like they deserved their rep too. So when trying the dry Austrian wines, even though I found many of them objectively outstanding I just sort of assumed that there was more market share for sweeter Riesling than dry.
What I could never fathom was how there was a seemingly sudden scramble and push to place GG wines from Germany up front and pricey in the market 10-15 years or so ago. I can remember being offered tastes of $80 dry German Rieslings from some vineyard I’d never heard of and being asked if I also found them amazing. All I could think was it was fine but that Austria offers wines as good or better than this for less money, from established producers. Why were we skipping right over those in order to prop up a lot of dry German Riesling suddenly? I’m still unsure how the GG’s seemed to have jumped the line.
I’m sure some of the higher end German bottlings are great and all. I’m not a huge Riesling drinker these days and I don’t taste so widely. I just can’t imagine the average GG bottling besting the producers on David’s list on a regular basis. At least not from what I remember about their wines.
I think this is the key. A bit of a tangent but it is illustrative.
Here in NZ when you talk to winemakers, they will tell almost always you that their Riesling is a loss making passion project. When you talk to restauranteurs/sommeliers who have Rieslings on their wine list, same thing; basically no one orders Rieslings off the wine list. They have them there because they love Riesling. Much much easier to sell Sauvigon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris (my pesonal bette noir of NZ white wines)
WBers are in a rather small Riesling micro ecoystem!
I wonder if some of this has to do with distribution/importer. The German wineries with the most hype (at least on this board, which of course is not representative) are pretty much all imported into the US by Vom Boden (Ie. Keller, Emrich-Schönleber, Vollenweider) or the German Wine Collection (Schäfer-Frohlich and, not hype per se, but still, Prüm). GWC has no Austria list at all; Vom Boden has two Austrian wineries (neither leaders). Skurnik, of course, has the portfolio with most of the names we have mentioned in this thread, but as far as Germany they no longer have what are seen as the hottest things (with exceptions for Dönnhoff and Willi Schaefer). I think the rise of these German-centric importers (who are not Germanic-centric in the way Trink magazine is) has hurt Austrian wines’ visibility with good merchants.
I don’t think that’s broadly the case. Many good merchants can’t get a sniff of the wines that have become fetish items here, so they have to look at other things. I know a couple of local places with decent selections of good Austrian wines, but the bottles largely sit there until I eventually buy them.
For me many Austrian Rieslings are too alcoholic. At least in my subjective experience. I like my Rieslings in the 10-12% range. Many Austrian Rieslings are clocking in more.
I have a sense that riesling is growing more popular with younger people (20s and early 30s). Small sample size, but those I have talked to seem to name riesling as a favorite (not necessarily German riesling … just riesling in general). There also seems to be more openness towards sweetness as well.
Funny story: I was at a wine bar near me that sells a lot of natural wine and a young Gen-Z guy (early 20s) asked if they had any riesling. He got the supercilious side-eye from the 30-something bartender who said an emphatic NO.
It’s possible SO2 may be mounting a small little comeback among the younger generation, though it may just be the people who I’ve met recently.
My 2 irrelevant cents as a very small fish: If i want to drink / store some riesling I’ve dozens of options from different part of Germany (and northern Italy, and new world) while Gruner Veltliner is mainly grown in Austria, at its highest form.
So If I’m not a big drinker with a lot of money and space, If I only buy one or 2 bottles from Austria a year those would be Gruner at least for a good amount of iterations.
Being from Austria I have no idea why Austrian wines in general are not more popular … but most quantities are limited if not tiny.
Riesling and Grüner Veltliner from Wachau and surrounding Lower Austria ( and also Vienna), whites from Styria (SB, Morillon=Chardonnay, PBlanc and PGris, Muskateller …) and reds and sweets from Burgenland are absolutely world class on the top level … and very satisfying on mid-lower level …
No idea what’s exported …
Also as I see it Germany has put way more effort to actually promote / sell wines in recent years too. Somehow I don’t see that kind of young & dynamic new generation movement from Austria as I see in Germany apart from some natural producers. I really like wines in every colour from Austria but somehow it almost seems that they don’t even want to sell wines. Wachau should promote their lower alcoholic steinfeder / federspiels in a same way than young producers stand for their kabinetts in Mosel but somehow I don’t see that at all. IMO Austria should also get rid of location based classification system.
For me, it is pretty simple. I don’t drink many Austrian wines because I like other wines more. My favorite white wines are Pradikat wines from Germany and white Burgundy and then I also like Loire Chenin Blanc. Basically, there is only so much time and money and I like German Riesling more than Austrian Riesling. It is that simple.
Jonathan and I were saying this very thing as we discussed this topic last night. It’s a bit of chicken and egg thing - is there not an up-swelling of young, enthusiastic growers because the wines haven’t inspired excitement on a large scale, or have the wines not inspired excitement because there isn’t an innovative and dynamic movement?
There was kind of an movement a couple of years ago with Austrian natural wines but even that seems slowed down significantly. Besides of riesling & gv I think there would be also huge potential with easy going & food friendly red wines like Zweigelt, Blaufrankisch, St. Laurent etc… but I literally don’t see them mentioned anywhere anymore.
I’ve drunk only one bottle and never tasted by the glass in any restaurant (It wasn’t there as an option) and it was a smaragd from domaine wachau (pretty yuoung) and I liked it a lot!
It’s one of those “odd” varieties I bought out of curiosity and ended up liking a lot, same for Assyrtiko. Unfortunately they’re not widely available when i shop, it’s usually either Domaine Wachau / Hizberger and Knoll (Knoll I haven’t bought because I go regularly to a restaurant that has a lot of it, with age, at great price so I’m gonna get one in a future dinner there)
It is a great question and I one I have thought about recently and have some unique perspectives on as I used to love the category and bought quite a bit.
I started my riesling obsession with dry Austrian wine in the early 2000s. It was still a niche category however somms and wine buyers were very enthusiastic fans of Austrian wines - today I don’t know many, if any, somms or wine buyers who are enthusiastic about non natural Austrian wine. Yes there are lots of fans of the natural segment.
Dry German wine was not as available back when I fell in love with dry Austrian Gruner and Riesling - Fast forward to today there is an enormous amount of dry German wines at all price points.
Austrian wines got a bit too big for me and with more lower abv dry options in Germany I personally became much less interested in Austrian wine. I do know from what I am told and based on a few bottles here and there that Austrian producers seem to have dialed back the abv.
Terry Thiese was a big advocate for Austrian wine. He is no longer relevant.
Crush and a few other stores also had big Austrian programs. Stephen Bitterolf was originally the Austrian buyer and did a lot to grow the category. He was originally, like me, more on the Austrian bandwagon than German.
So in summary the wines were too big, lost a number of key advocates on the retail and import/distribution side, Austrian natural wine became extremely popular, an entire generation of wine buyers and somms do not know much about classic Austrian wines and if you ask me the increased availability of German dry wine has taken market share from Austrian wine.
p.s. I read this thread last night before heading out and it encouraged me to order a Austrian riesling from Barbara Ohlzelt, it was a tad too ripe and did not have the acidity I crave, the fruit profile was ripe exotic fruit with just a tad too much sweetness.
