My Top Ten New Austrian Growers

Austria's best young winemaking talent unearthed at Karakterre and VieVinum

Back from an epic few days in Burgenland and Vienna, here is a feelgood posting to counter the more edgy article I published last week - which nonetheless prompted many excellent discussions.

Last year at Karakterre, I almost entirely spurned Austria, focusing instead on the rest of Mitteleuropa. So this time the balance needed to be redressed. The number of new names and first-time exhibitors stunned me. At a time when the doom-mongers continue their narrative that the next generation doesn’t care about wine, it’s heartwarming and important to see so many young and passionate growers coming up through the ranks.

My definition of ‘young’ is broad. From where I’m standing, anyone under 40 fits in that box. I’ve included a couple of winemaking projects that are maybe not exactly new, but not yet well-known internationally. All of them deserve your attention.

A welcome trend noted at Karakterre this year was that just about every exhibiting Austrian grower had either organic or biodynamic certification. It’s fast becoming the default for growers on the natural/minimal-intervention side of the fence. I hope the countless French and Italian certification-deniers will take note.

All the growers listed below ferment with wild yeasts, and (with the exception of one wine, noted) neither filter nor fine. Most add minimal amounts of sulphites. For the more radical amongst you, I’ve noted the zero-zero examples.