Austria enjoyed an exceptional quality vintage in 2023 making the country's top "Erste lage" single-vineyard white wines an unmissable prospect for savvy fine wine buyers.
We are so convinced by the quality and value of riesling and grüner veltliner from 2023 that we have expanded our en primeur offering to the top wines of 5 producers from Kamptal and Kremstal and included a selection of mixed cases. This remains a globally exclusive first chance to secure these cellar-worthy whites before they hit the rest of the market.
Scroll down for more information on the vintage, varieties and what we believe makes these wines so special.
Place your order by noon, Monday 22nd April
An outstanding vintage
Austria has enjoyed a cluster of good vintages in recent years, with every other being outstanding. 2019 and 2021 were exceptional, with the vintages either side of those being very good but requiring skill from the winemakers to show at their best. 2023 is a truly outstanding year, one of the very best in recent history, with just a small hail event in some localised areas reducing yields a little before harvest. Stylistically not dissimilar to the phenomenally balanced wines of 2021, 2023 has given a pronounced structural acidity combined with a juicy, ripe and wholesome core of yellow fruits in both riesling and grüner veltliner. The real signature of the vintage though seems to be a delicious and mouthwatering lift of pronounced spice on the finish, which makes the wines incredibly moreish. Generous without being opulent, they are precise and complete wines, with notable finesse.
Two great grapes from five world-class producers
Austrian riesling is remarkable and yet lesser known than those from Germany. Comparatively, it is always dry, with notably driven acidity which provides structure and ageability. The wines have a core of fruit that is ripe, generous and mouthwateringly delicious. The other key grape variety, grüner veltliner, is versatile and in some ways Austria’s answer to chardonnay. It reflects the nuances of site and hand and makes for a remarkably good-value alternative to white Burgundy for this reason. Our selection features wines from Bründlmayer, Schloss Gobelsburg, Jurtschitsch, Weingut Wess and Geyerhof to reserve, including a handful of mixed cases that offer a great way to try a variety of wines.
A guarantee of quality
The Austrians’ approach to classifying their quality wines has been arguably the most fastidious and drawn-out of any wine country in recent decades. The ÖTW (Österreichische Traditionsweingüter), today led by Michael Moosbrugger of Schloss Gobelsburg, has tasted every new release from every top vineyard of lower Austria for more than 30 years, slowly defining which are the sites that have the capability to produce the finest expressions of Austrian fine wine. The result is an identification of quality, based entirely on evidence and not purely on historical agreements or political arm-twisting. The 1ÖTW mark is the symbol awarded to those vineyards which have passed muster for their consistency and are recognised for imparting something incredibly special into the wines: a true sense of place.
