Do ÖTW Erste Lage single-vineyard wines lack variety?

The Grafenegg tasting of the Danube's top wines is one of the highlights of the tasting year. Yet sometimes the wines can show a frustrating uniformity. Simon investigates why this is.

Imagine you’re a winemaker/grower lucky enough to own a prized parcel in a top vineyard location. How do you best ensure that the unique character of said vineyard expresses its maximum potential in the wine? Ask three winemakers and you’ll get three different answers. At least one will say “our wine is made in the vineyard” – by which they mean that it’s the vineyard work that exerts the greatest influence. Another may passionately believe that the bare minimum of intervention in the cellar is necessary to let the vineyard speak clearly in the finished wine. This could mean a wild yeast (spontaneous) fermentation, no temperature control and bottling without added sulphites or filtration. With white grapes, it could also mean skin fermentation – nothing taken away, nothing added. Taste through the top wines of Lower Austria’s Kamptal, Kremstal, Traisental and Wagram regions and you might form a rather different opinion: the best way to express terroir is with cool fermentation (and p…