Austrian wines are filled with nuances. Grüner Veltliner and Riesling are probably the country’s best-known varietals, rated not just for their range of styles and expressions, but also their complexity, ageing potential and (significantly) their ability to partner so wonderfully with a vast assortment of foods. But the country has other great expressions, too, from fruit-and-mineral reds such as Blaufränkisch to the stunning Beerenauslesen and Trockenbeerenauslesen dessert wines, with their exotic flavours and hyper-harmonious sugar-fruit-acidity structures.

Grüner Veltliner is Austria’s flagship grape, and makes up around 37% of the country’s 51,500 ha of vineyards. Riesling, interestingly, accounts for just under 4% of Austrian vineyards, which makes it all the more remarkable that it has such a powerful reputation worldwide.

Even more impressive is that these two grape varieties have been catapulted to fame mainly by three wine-growing areas in Niederösterreich – Wachau, Kamptal and Kremstal – whose vineyards altogether total just 7,700 ha!

NiederOsterreich

You might think it would be hard to tell the difference between a Grüner Veltliner from the Wachau and one from the Kamptal, or a Wachau Riesling from a Kremstal one. After all, these three wine-growing areas are neighbours, snuggled up to one another along a stretch of the Danube river 75km west of Vienna. In fact, though, they are all quite different – and distinctive.

The Wachau, the western-most area, plays host to a complex range of dry wines that are best defined through the area’s own three-tiered quality classification system: Steinfeder, named after a grass growing in the vineyards, is for easy, light-bodied wines with generally low alcohol levels (around 11-11.5%); Federspiel, the most significant category, named after a traditional falconry device, denotes medium-bodied wines with alcohol levels of between 11.5% and 12.5%; and Smaragd, named after the emerald-coloured Idex lizards frolicking in the vineyards that soar above the Danube, is for deep, robust wines made from the ripest possible grapes. Usually picked very late in the season, Smaragd feature a minimum of 12.5% alcohol content, and are ideal for lengthy cellaring.

The Wachau is a climatic crossroads where Atlantic and Alpine winds from the west converge with cool forest air from the north and warm Pannonian air from Hungary to the east. This results in extreme differences between evening and daytime temperatures, which are tempered somewhat by the Danube. Still, the wines are therefore generously aromatic – lots of peach and apricot notes – and yield a fresh, vibrant acidity.

Of course, the terroir here is the clincher. The lower-lying vineyards close to the Danube are mainly of sand and loess. Higher up the slopes, on the vineyards laced with ancient stone terraces – which can peak at between 400m and 600m – there is plenty of gneiss, slate and granite. From the highest vineyards come the monumental Smaragd-level wines that are full of concentration, minerality and exotic expression, while being underscored with depth and purity.

The region’s most famous single vineyards are Tausendeimerberg, Singerriedel, Honivogl, Schütt, Kellerberg and Loibenberg.

.Kremstal

At the eastern edge of the Wachau is Kremstal. Only 15km long, Kremstal’s landscape and climate are less dramatic than those of the Wachau, and the same goes for its wines, which has its advantages.

‘Kremstal wines are a bit more open and approachable at an earlier point than Wachau wines,’ says Fritz Miesbauer, who runs two Kremstal wineries, Weingut Stadt Krems and Stift Göttweig. ‘The wines are softer in minerality, in acidity.’

Kremstal terroir is abundant in loess – a Grüner Veltliner favourite – which is also a main feature in many of the terraced vineyards here. Loam, sand and gravel soils are found as well, as are pockets of weathered slate, which Riesling loves.

Because Kremstal wines have long been overshadowed by those of the Wachau and the Kamptal, the area adopted Austria’s appellation system, DAC, at the end of 2007, to emphasise its own personality.

Kremstal DAC comprises a two-tiered system that utilises only the Grüner Veltliner and Riesling varietals. These can be produced either in the dry, light style, underscoring clean, clear fruit and minerality with alcohol levels of 12-12.5%; or the dry, fuller reserve style, which emphasises a deeper fruit and mineral character and a minimum of 13% alcohol, and can exude subtle notes of botrytis
and wood.

.Kamptal 

The final main area of Niederösterreich is Kamptal, which lies to the east and north of the Kremstal. It’s centred round the town of Langenlois, around which are some of the area’s finest sites. Loess and loam are plentiful, and in highly situated vineyards you’ll find subsoils of gneiss and weathered crystalline slate.

The Heiligenstein, at 270m years old and counting, is a towering formation that features the renowned Zöbinger Heiligenstein site: rich in volcanic rock and desert sandstone, its Rieslings are well known. Yet, not far away is the loam-rich Ried Lamm, which delivers outstanding Grüner Veltliners.

The Kamptal’s climate – cool northern winds in the evening, hot air from the east during the day – is not unlike that of the Kremstal or parts of the Wachau. However, while the Kamp river here serves as a climatic regulator, it does not have the largesse of the Danube. Ultimately, the Kamptal gives birth to wines of elegant, sophisticated balance. With their own brand of fresh, clear fruit and mineral definition, they fall somewhere between the Wachau and Kremstal wines.

Burgenland

For red wines as well as botrytised dessert wines, the Burgenland wine-growing area is optimal territory. Stretching along Austria’s border to Hungary, Burgenland has over 15,500ha of vineyards divided among four specific wine-growing areas.

.Mittelburgenland 

This area is best for the red Blaufränkisch, especially around the towns of Deutschkreutz and Horitschon. Here, the loamy soils give wines cherry, plum and blackberry flavours, backed by characteristically firm tannins and vibrant acidity. Mittelburgenland DAC versions demonstrate two Blaufränkisch variations: young, fresh and fruit forwardness; and deep and powerful with spicy undertones.

.Sudburgenland 

This region gives mineral-and-spice expressions of Blaufränkisch.

.Neusiedlersee 

This area north of Mittelburgenland, round the Neusiedl lake, absorbs the warm Pannonian air wafting over from the Hungarian Plain across the border, and is host not only to Blaufränkisch, but to other fine reds as well: gentle St Laurent, with its spicy cherry and raspberry fruitiness; elegant Pinot Noir, (often claimed to be an ancestor of St Laurent); and lush, smooth Zweigelt.

Fine examples, whether easy-to-drink or deep and age-worthy, can be found around the villages of Gols, Mönchhof, Halbturn and Frauenkirchen. Not only do these produce fabulous single-varietal wines, but they also reveal their multi-dimensional character in cuvée blends.

Lake Neusiedl’s eastern and western banks are also home to some of the finest sweet wines in the world, where noble rot is nurtured by the high humidity influences from the vast, shallow lake.

The finest, made from varieties such as Welschriesling, Scheurebe and Muskat-Ottonel, include the luscious Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA), the lighter Beerenauslese (BA) and, with sweetness levels somewhere between the two, the Ruster Ausbruch, a speciality made in the town of Rust for more than 400 years.