Traditional Wineries of Austria (“ÖTW”): Single Vineyard Summit & Top Ten Vineyards Countrywide

By John Szabo, MS

The Österreichische Traditionsweingüter, or ÖTW, was founded on a simple conviction: that Austria’s greatest wines come from its greatest vineyards, and that those vineyards deserve to be identified and named. The idea took shape in January 1991, at a meeting of a handful of leading Kamptal and Kremstal growers in Langenlois, and the association was formally constituted that June at Kloster Und in Krems, with 18 member estates.

The name was deliberately chosen to leave the door open to the rest of the country, and the ÖTW has since grown to 92 members across eight regions: the Kamptal, Kremstal, Traisental and Wagram, Vienna, Carnuntum, and more recently the Thermenregion and Weinviertel. From the start, its central project has been a Burgundian-style classification of single vineyards, and in 2023 that classification was written into Austrian wine law.

The Wachau, Burgenland and Styria are not ÖTW member regions; each has its own approach to origin, through Vinea Wachau, Burgenland’s DAC appellations and Styria’s STK respectively. All three were nonetheless invited to Grafenegg Castle this September to participate in the ÖTW’s annual Erste Lage tasting in a spirit of collaboration, and in the hope that they will one day join a single, national vineyard classification. This year, for the first time, Burgenland showed its full range of single-vineyard wines, rather than only the Leithaberg and Eisenberg appellations that had appeared as guests in previous editions.

To be classified as an ÖTW Erste Lage (“first growth”), a vineyard must have a proven record of producing outstanding wines over many vintages, with soil, microclimate, exposure and elevation that give wines of distinctive and consistent character. The assessment weighs the site’s historical relevance and homogeneity alongside expert tastings, evaluations in the wine press, and economic factors such as the number of producers bottling wine from the site and the prices those wines command. Only regionally typical varieties qualify, and candidate sites are observed over several years before they are classified.

Erste Lage, the equivalent of premier cru, is currently the top tier; a Grosse Lage (grand cru,) category will follow, though only Erste Lagen that have existed for a minimum of five years can be considered. Today 145 sites carry the designation, and their wines are labelled 1 ÖTW.

The ÖTW has presented the new vintage of its Erste Lagen at Schloss Grafenegg, about 60 kilometres west of Vienna, every September since 2013, before the wines are released to the market. Now called the Single Vineyard Summit, it is a silent tasting for the trade: participants choose their own flights from the full list and taste at their own pace, in the castle’s former riding school, reopened this year as the Rudolf Buchbinder Hall. The 2026 edition, held from September 7 to 10, brought together 556 wines from 170 wineries, all of them certified organic, biodynamic or sustainable for the first time, and more than 300 wine professionals from over 30 countries.

2026 was my first time at Grafenegg, and it was a genuine pleasure to taste through so many of Austria’s top wines over the course of four days. It is rare to be able to line up a country’s finest sites, producer by producer, in such focused conditions. The tasting was organized with impeccable professionalism, from registration to the service of every flight by the wine producers themselves, to the calm, concentrated atmosphere in the hall, which turned the sheer volume of wines into a joy rather than a test of endurance.

The ten vineyards that follow, and the wines listed, are my personal top picks (and future Grosse Lagen in my estimation) from the tasting of nearly 300 wines over the four days, based purely on my reviews and on what I know of each site’s history and track record. For now, there is no official hierarchy among the Erste Lagen, though this list is an early attempt to create one. Note that it is necessarily incomplete; I tasted only about half of the 556 wines.

Future Grand Crus

Five are in the Kamptal. The Heiligenstein above Zöbing, the “hell stone” named for its searing sun, grows riesling on 250-million-year-old desert sandstone and volcanic rock, while its neighbour, Zöbing’s Gaisberg, gives stony, flinty riesling from weathered mica schist. The other Gaisberg, at Straß im Straßertale, pairs crystalline rock at the top of the slope with deep loess at its foot, and suits both grüner veltliner and riesling. The Käferberg in Langenlois hides a patchwork of ancient crystalline rock, marine sediments and loess, with clay that Bründlmayer likens to Pétrus, and the Lamm at Kammern, named for its loam, is one of the region’s hottest sites and grüner veltliner territory par excellence.

In the Wachau, the Singerriedel at Spitz climbs in dry-stone terraces as steep as 110%, with grüner at the foot and riesling above; the Hochrain at Wösendorf stands out for its deep loess and plush grüner; and the Achleiten at Weißenkirchen, the “slope with oaks,” is divided among more than 50 owners and excels with both varieties.

In Carnuntum, the Spitzerberg, a dry, wind-swept limestone ridge within a nature reserve near the Slovak border, is the lone red-wine site, the source of firm, chalky blaufränkisch. And on Vienna’s Nussberg, the Preussen, named not for Prussia but for a 13th-century holder of Danube ferry rights, yields riesling and Wiener Gemischter Satz field blends from calcareous sandstone.

For each vineyard, you’ll find a short profile of the site, covering its history, soils and the style of its wines, followed by my reviews of the top wines tasted, listed by score. Most are from the 2024 and 2025 vintages, with a few, including the Spitzerberg blaufränkisch, from 2023. See my other piece on Austria for vintage summaries of these three.

To see all my recent Austrian wine reviews, visit winealign.com and use the Wine dropdown – Find Wine, and set to Austria and “All Sources”.

Heiligenstein (Zöbing, Kamptal)

The name sounds devout, but the Heiligenstein owes nothing to the church. A monastic register of 1280 records it as Hellenstein, the “hell stone,” after the sun that bakes its slopes; the site itself is documented as early as 1240. The local mountain of Langenlois rises to around 350 metres above Zöbing. Its south- and southwest-facing flank is folded into a shell-shaped basin of terraces, its crown is wooded, and at the top stands the Kamptalwarte, a 21-metre lookout tower built in 1897, from which the view runs over the Kamp valley to the Ötscher and Schneeberg on clear days. Between the vines lie protected dry grasslands, home to plants and insects otherwise found far to the south.

Underfoot is a geological oddity: reddish-brown sandstones, conglomerates and volcanic quartz porphyry laid down some 250 million years ago under a desert climate, with only a few hollows of loess, making this a predominantly Riesling cru. Hot days are followed by nights cooled by air from the higher Waldviertel. Two sub-sites are bottled separately: Rotfels, on hand-built terraces over red sandstone, and the steep, finely terraced Steinwand, where a ridge of Kamp gravel marks an ancient riverbed. The rieslings are stony, tightly wound and shy of fruit in youth, built on extraordinary extract and length, and need until the end of the decade, or well beyond, to show what they hold.

97 – Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Heiligenstein 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
A magnificent wine here from Gobelsburg, dense and rich, ripe but contained, with immense depth and extract, and length. The finish goes on and on, covering a wide spectrum of flavours. Outstanding, a wine for the ages. Best from 2029.

97 – Hirsch Riesling Heiligenstein-Rotfels 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
From one of the historic parcels in the heart of the superlative Heiligenstein cru, Hirsch’s 2024 riesling is an absolute marvel of a wine, pure, precise, beautifully delineated, with pitch perfect balance. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better than the ‘regular’ Heiligenstein riesling, this sub parcel bottling takes it to another level. Best from about 2030 – a legend in the making.

97 – Bründlmayer Riesling Heiligenstein Alte Reben 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
Legendary stuff here from Bründlmayer’s old vines Heiligenstein in the 2024 vintage, a wine that surpasses all expectations from this challenging year. Extract and density on the palate are outstanding, and length is superb. A complete and brilliant wine, best from 2029.

96 – Hirsch Riesling Heiligenstein 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
Beautifully crafted and composed, stony and properly contained, tightly wound, a superb Heiligenstein here from Hirsch with superb length and depth, finesse and complexity waiting to evolve. Cellar until 2029 at least before revisiting – this will have a long life ahead.

96 – Jurtschitsch Riesling Heiligenstein-Steinwand 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
Lovely aromatics lead off here, a riesling of classical proportions with its citrus-focused flavours supported by a rich, densely-packed palate and clever lees influence. Intensity and concentration are off-the-charts – this is monumental riesling in the end, hyper-concentrated and thick, almost chewy with extract. Length and depth are superlative. Certainly in the leading peloton of Austrian rieslings in 2024. Cellar until the early ’30s before cracking.

Spitzerberg (Prellenkirchen, Carnuntum)

Few Austrian vineyards keep such wild company. The Spitzerberg is a long, isolated ridge near the Slovak border, rising to about 300 metres, its wooded crest protected. A nature reserve since 1981, its rock steppes and dry grasslands shelter the clouded Apollo butterfly and the European ground squirrel. The Romans grew vines here, a short distance from the legionary camp at Carnuntum. The hill began as a reef in a prehistoric sea, and the vines now grow in heavily eroded, fine-grained calcareous sand over limestone and dolomite. Sitting in the gateway between the Alps and the Carpathians, it is shielded from Atlantic rain, extremely dry and almost constantly windy (wind turbines dot the landscape), so blaufränkisch ripens slowly, yields little and ages long.

Dorli Muhr, who started in 1995 with a 0.17-hectare parcel inherited from her grandmother, bottles several sub-sites separately: Obere Roterd, narrow terraces at the edge of the reserve strewn with large limestone rocks left by the ancient Pannonian Sea, and Obere Spitzer, the westernmost, steepest and most barren section of the slope. The wines are firm, chalky and restrained, with red and black cherry fruit and fine, dusty tannins. The best need years in bottle, and on this showing the Spitzerberg is the leading site in Carnuntum.

97 – Dorli Muhr Blaufränkisch Spitzerberg-Obere Roterd 1 ÖTW 2023, Carnuntum
The Obere Roterd sub-parcel of the Spitzerberg may well take the wine of the vintage mantle away from the Obere Spitzer at Muhr, here a firm and chalky, densely packed and tightly wound but ultimately well-balanced Blaufränkisch with the characteristic restraint and structure of the site and winery. It presents more youthful than all of the other sub-parcels, a stately and structured beauty that will need another half dozen years to enter prime drinking I suspect. The shallow soils on these narrow terraces clearly shape the similarly stony profile on offer here. Lovely, lovely wine.

96 – Dorli Muhr Blaufränkisch Spitzerberg-Obere Spitzer 1 ÖTW 2023, Carnuntum
Obere Spitzer is often my favourite sub-parcel of the Spitzerberg bottled separately along with several other sub crus. 2023 delivered a typically refined, ripe but contained, silky-firm expression with a broad range of red and black cherry flavours and old wood spice. Acids are ever-present and firm but not hard, and length and depth are excellent. It’s perhaps not as immediately appealing as the more approachable Liebkind bottling from Muhr, but will likely outlast them all in the end. Best from 2029.

95 – Johannes Trapl Blaufränkisch Spitzerberg 1 ÖTW 2023, Carnuntum
A flashy and impressive Spitzerberg here, with ample substance on the palate, generous and fleshy, a real mouthful of cherry fruit extract. Wood is thankfully not a main flavour factor, melding into the dense dark berry fruit, and length and depth are excellent. Polished, high quality, very sound wine with potential to evolve through the late ’30s, best from about 2028.

94 – Dorli Muhr Blaufränkisch Spitzerberg Liebkind 1 ÖTW 2023, Carnuntum
A beautiful rendition of the Liebkind sub-parcel of the Spitzerberg vineyard, one of several that Muhr bottles separately, featuring unusually ripe, almost blue fruit character alongside dense, dark cherry fruit. The palate is broad and fluid, with a notable step up in depth and concentration from the ‘regular’ Spitzerberg. Tannins are still grainy-dusty and need a few more years to polish up. Try again after 2029. Lovely, elegant but substantial wine.

94 – Dorli Muhr Blaufränkisch Spitzerberg 1 ÖTW 2023, Carnuntum
Muhr’s 2023 Spitzerberg parcel blend is a fine and dusty, perfumed and floral, oxidative-leaning wine in the refined house style, with silky tannins and balanced acids. Ripe red and black cherry fruit lead in the varietal idiom; I like the fluidity and ease and the simmering underlying, and understated, complexity. Cellar another 2-3 years for the final polish.

Singerriedel (Spitz, Wachau)

At the entrance to the town of Spitz and the Valley that takes its name, the Singerriedel climbs from the edge of town in a staircase of narrow terraces held up by dry stone walls, at an average gradient of 50% and as steep as 110% in places. It is one of the most striking sights in the Wachau, a valley whose medieval terraced landscape has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. Documented in 1486, the vineyard has been steadily restored over the past three decades.

Its 8.31 hectares face west to south over shallow, sandy soils on paragneiss bedrock, banded with mica schist and quartzite. Grüner veltliner is planted at the foot of the slope, riesling on the steepest terraces above. These are wines of serious power and palpable extract, with ripe citrus fruit and acids that are rich rather than tart; the finest rieslings need until 2030 and will hold for decades.

97 – Franz Hirtzberger Riesling Singerriedel Smaragd 2025, Wachau
Still reserved on the nose for the moment, Hirtzberger’s ’25 Singerriedel riesling has immense power in reserve, a wine of serious and palpable extract and density. Acids are rich and intense but not overtly tart, and the flavour intensity is almost painful. The finish reverberates for minutes. A monumental wine that should last for decades. Indeed, I’d suggest cellaring until at least 2030 before revisiting, or hold into the ’40s or ’50s.

94 – Rixinger Grüner Veltliner Singerriedel Smaragd 2025, Wachau
A beautifully perfumed grüner here from the outstanding Singerriedel vineyard in the cool Spitz Valley, bright, precise, perfumed, citric, clearly very ripe – at smaragd level – but also sharp and well framed by lively acids. Depth is exceptional, as is length. A very sharp value indeed, best from 2027 – it is already drinking well and should have a long landing strip.

94 – Rixinger Riesling Singerriedel Smaragd 2025, Wachau
Another sharp value from Rixinger, a riesling from the outstanding Singerriedel vineyard in Spitz displaying lovely sharp-tart-ripe citrus character, ripe lemons and white grapefruit, with green peach and apricot mingling. It’s fully dry, bright, well-balanced if powerful at 14.5% ABV declared, a huge mouthful of concentrated wine. Best from 2028-2029.

Hochrain (Wösendorf, Wachau)

Hochrain translates as “high place”, though it shows the Wachau’s softer side. Above the village of Wösendorf, in the middle of the valley, its 27.46 hectares of terraces face southeast, and the site is documented as early as 1334. What sets it apart is loess, the fine, wind-blown dust of the ice ages, present here in unusual depth and capped with a layer of black earth. Loess is associated with broader, more intense grüner veltliner, and the grüners here have a comfortable, almost plush texture, citrus and green orchard fruit and a long, white pepper-inflected finish. Rudi Pichler’s riesling shows a purer, floral side, shaped by crunchy acids. All drink well young yet will hold comfortably for a decade or more.

96 – Rudi Pichler Grüner Veltliner Hochrain Smaragd 2025, Wachau
An absolute beauty of a wine with a lovely flinty-reductive, wild ferment side allied to ripe-fresh perfectly poised citrus and green orchard fruit flavours. I love the balance between generosity and depth, and precision and tight focus, also the exceptional white pepper-inflected, long finish. This is absolutely textbook grüner at the smaragd ripeness level, with that comfortable loess-derived texture. Very sharp value indeed; best from 2028.

96 – Rudi Pichler Riesling Hochrain Smaragd 2025, Wachau
Gorgeous riesling here from Rudi Pichler, pure, precise, tightly wound and sharply delineated, with plenty of floral-terpene flavours on display, shaped by crunchy acids. Length is excellent. Alcohol is perfectly balanced at 13% declared. An excellent vintage in an excellent site, best from 2028-2029, or hold into the ’40s comfortably.

93 – Martin Bruch Grüner Veltliner Hochrain Smaragd 2025, Wachau
A more tightly wound and aromatically closed rendition of Hochrain grüner, with comfortable loess-derived texture and delicate white pepper inflection, pretty textbook in the end. I like the emergent citrus fruit and hard pear flavours with just a touch of leguminous-lentil flavours. Drinking well now, but should hold comfortably into the late ’30s if you want to stretch it out. Terrific value in context.

Käferberg (Langenlois, Kamptal)

Documented since 1317, the Käferberg is a gentle, east- and southeast-facing slope above Langenlois, at 304 to 364 metres, warm and sheltered from the wind. Its 30.6 hectares conceal a remarkable geological patchwork: crystalline amphibolite, gneiss and mica schist some 310 to 350 million years old meet clay marl, sands and shell limestone laid down by the Paratethys Sea about 16 million years ago, with loess metres deep draped over parts of the hill.

The Bründlmayer estate compares its clay to that of Château Pétrus in Pomerol, and notes that the soil is hard to work, usually either too dry or too wet. Old grüner veltliner vines here give wines of exceptional fullness and concentration. The 2024s were dense and precise, with high fruit extract coating rich acids, and some showed the warmth of the site in a riper, roasted-citrus register. There were no weak examples among the ÖTW members’ bottlings.

95 – Bründlmayer Grüner Veltliner Käferberg 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
Beautiful purity and freshness lead off on this exceptional Käferberg grüner – I love the density and precision, the sharp, rich acids coated in high fruit extract. Length and depth are excellent. Clearly a superior example from an excellent site, a true premier cru. Best from 2028.

94 – Jurtschitsch Grüner Veltliner Käferberg 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
Lovely, open and giving grüner here from the great Käferberg vineyard, fragrant, with an appealing range of green, white and yellow-fleshed fruit. Acids are rich and creamy, extract and density are excellent, as is length. Top notch; best from 2028.

94 – Loimer Grüner Veltliner Käferberg 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
Loimer’s 2024 Käferberg GV forms a darker counterpoint to vineyard and vintage expression relative to several others tasted alongside, offering a more roasted citrus fruit profile from this warm site, almost exotic in its expressiveness, and with superlative density and length. Drink from 2027.

93 – Hiedler Grüner Veltliner Käferberg 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
An unusual barrel-fermented grüner, Hiedler’s 2024 Käferberg shows the oak influence straight off with its resinous oak spice. And yet, the palate also shows significant fruit weight and density, ripeness and concentration, suggesting small berries with high skin to juice ratio. Fruit shifts from yellow to orange to tropical, with roasted pineapple and grilled grapefruit emerging on the finish. Clearly ambitious, dense and substantial, in need of another 2-3 years in the bottle to come together. Quality wine.

Lamm (Kammern, Kamptal)

Lamm has nothing to do with lambs: the name comes from Laam, local dialect for loam. Tucked at the southeastern foot of the Heiligenstein above Kammern and documented since 1703, it is one of the hottest sites in the region. Calcareous, loamy-sandy silt over loess makes for deep, fertile soil, while higher up the siltstones and sandstones of the Heiligenstein begin to surface.

Where its neighbour is riesling territory, the Lamm belongs to grüner veltliner, yielding expressive, multi-layered wines with plenty of substance and texture. Bründlmayer counts it as the top bottling in its range. The wines are broad, dense and concentrated, and in a hot year like 2024 they lean toward power over finesse, though the best kept their freshness and cut.

95 – Schloss Gobelsburg Grüner Veltliner Lamm 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
Gobelsburg’s Lamm 2024 is a broad and dense, highly concentrated wine, with high flavour intensity and excellent balance in the context of this challenging vintage. What might have been roasted fruit was somehow salvaged to retain some cut and freshness, and the length is excellent. Another superb rendition from this storied estate, at the top of the Lamm peak in 2024.

95 – Bründlmayer Grüner Veltliner Lamm 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
The top bottling in the excellent Bründlmayer range, the 2024 Ried Lamm defies the logic of the vintage with its purity and freshness, the pitch-perfect balance and saline acids driving the back end; wood is still a feature for now and the wine is all over the place, but another 3-4 years in the cellar should see it come around. A superb 2024 in the end.

94 – Hirsch Grüner Veltliner Lamm 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
Subtle but open and loose on the nose relative to other 2025 Lamm vineyard GVs tasted alongside (2024 was a warmer vintage, and Hirsch’s 2023 Lamm is a step above this), there’s a darkness and a mineral oil expression absent in other bottlings; the palate shows more of the mineral oil character and high density and intensity. It’s a wine of power more than finesse, more roasted fruit than fresh. Length and depth are excellent. Not the polished and elegant vintage style that I prefer, but an excellent wine in the context of the year and a grand triumph as such.

92 – Steininger Grüner Veltliner Lamm 1 ÖTW 2025, Kamptal
Fine, crisp, clean, lively and citric, Steininger’s 2025 Lamm GV is a well-balanced, fleshy, ripe, fullish and satisfying wine, accurately rendered in this excellent vintage. Acids are balanced-tight and everything lines up nicely. This estate has been a happy new find for me during this year’s ÖTW tasting.

92 – Jurtschitsch Grüner Veltliner Lamm 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
Clearly a very ripe, yellow and orange fruit-inflected wine here from the hot 2024 vintage, reflecting the season, also with its stressed, phenolic grip and green acids underlying. It’s a severe, austere expression, a reflection of suffering GV this year, not a meek wine in any case but forceful and aggressive. Length is very good. It will need at least 3-4 years to unwind I’d think in bottle, yet will remain a tight and dense, chewy expression.

Gaisberg (Straß im Straßertale, Kamptal)

The name Gaisberg recalls the goat pastures that once covered these hills, and the Kamptal has three ÖTW adjacent but distinctive sites that carry it. The one at Straß im Straßertale, documented since 1341, presents a steep eastern flank to the Straßertal and a gentler main face turned to the south. Its 26.4 hectares combine paragneiss, mica schist and amphibolite at the top of the slope with deep, humus-rich loess at its foot, a mix that serves both grüner veltliner and riesling. Grüner is the signature variety here: generous, broad wines billowing with yellow-fleshed fruit in the classic loess idiom, framed by tense acids. Riesling from the same slope runs more to citrus and apple, sapid and long.

94 – Allram Grüner Veltliner Gaisberg 1 ÖTW 2025, Kamptal
Lovely stuff here from Allram, a GV of substantial proportions and broad, dense flavours, billowing with fruit in the yellow-fleshed spectrum, ripe and comfortable, framed by lovely, tense acids. Length is excellent. Top quality, best from 2028-2029.

93 – Eichinger Grüner Veltliner Gaisberg 1 ÖTW 2025, Kamptal
Lovely, fresh floral fragrance off the top; blossoms and citrus fruit to the fore, and billowing white and yellow fruit on the comfortable, broad and fleshy palate. I like the generous ‘loess’ expression of this GV, an arch-classic textbook delivery, ample and substantial. Length is excellent. A top wine from Eichinger, best from 2028.

93 – Weixelbaum Grüner Veltliner Gaisberg 1 ÖTW 2023, Kamptal
Lovely crunchy, tight and fresh, balanced and also generous, properly white pepper inflected without caricature. Length and depth are very good to excellent. Succulent, juicy, long. Fine.

93 – Weixelbaum Riesling Gaisberg 1 ÖTW 2023, Kamptal
Attractive aromatics lead in the varietal range of citrus and apple, mostly green, but underlying ripeness and density emerge on the back palate. I find it well balanced, sapid and long on the palate, with excellent length, concentration and poise. Fine wine from a fine vintage.

Gaisberg (Zöbing, Kamptal)

Zöbing’s Gaisberg is the Heiligenstein’s neighbour on the southern foothills of the Manhartsberg, with terraces in its upper reaches and a Kellergasse, a lane of old cellar vaults, at its foot. Documented in 1341, its 21.4 hectares face southwest and west. The soil is lime-free brown earth, sandy, gritty and stony, weathered from mica schist with lenses of amphibolite and possible traces of loess, conditions the ÖTW considers ideal for riesling. The rieslings are stony and often flinty, with ripe citrus fruit that shifts toward peach and apricot, and crackling acids. The hot 2024 vintage brought more phenolic grip; 2025 delivered both ripeness and freshness.

94 – Eichinger Riesling Gaisberg 1 ÖTW 2025, Kamptal
A particularly stony, flinty-reductive riesling from the Gaisberg in the excellent 2025 vintage, with a basket of ripe citrus fruit underneath, shifting more towards peaches and apricots, and their blossoms, on the palate. It’s a fairly round and generous style of riesling in the end, with crackling acids and sharp framing, an excellent example. Best from 2028.

94 – Allram Riesling Gaisberg 1 ÖTW 2025, Kamptal
Allram’s 2025 Gaisberg riesling shows a fine mix of ripeness and freshness, citrus and florals, orchard fruit of both white and yellow fleshed shades. The palate is generous and dense with terrifically rich acids framing a bright, more citrus-leaning flavour profile, with crackling, sharp acids drawing copious saliva. Length is very good to excellent. Needs another 3-4 years I’d suggest to show its best.

93 – Topf Grüner Veltliner Gaisberg 1 ÖTW 2025, Kamptal
Intensely and attractively perfumed, with a lovely range of citrus and yellow-fleshed orchard fruit, with lovely ripeness and freshness in the excellent 2025 vintage idiom. The palate is creamy and fleshy, a classic GV site to be sure, generously proportioned and with excellent length. A top bottling from Topf in the vintage.

92 – Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Gaisberg 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
Lovely lime purée and green peach flavours lead in Gobelsburg’s 2024 Gaisberg riesling, showing phenolics and grip on the palate per the stressful, hot vintage, though coming out well in the end. Concentration and density of flavours are unimpeachable in the context, and length is very good to excellent. It’s not a silky beauty, but a forceful, rugged and characterful wine, best from about 2028.

92 – Hirsch Riesling Gaisberg 1 ÖTW 2024, Kamptal
Lime juice and purée lead on Hirsch’s 2024 Gaisberg riesling, a wine of comfortable acids and phenolic grip, and very good length. The quality of the vineyard shows even in this challenging, hot year with late season rain, and the estate has come out admirably all things considered. A small share, circa 10%, of riesling from the stonier terraces finds its way into this wine each year, the secret to the acid drive of this otherwise very loess-driven site. I’d suggest another 1-2 years in bottle minimum before starting to enjoy.

Achleiten (Weißenkirchen, Wachau)

Achleiten is one of the best-known vineyards in the Wachau and a defining landmark of Weißenkirchen. Recorded in 1314 as “an der Echleiten,” the slope with oaks, it rises from the Danube in terraces as steep as 77%, between about 210 and 360 metres, facing west to southeast, and is divided among more than 50 owners. The highest terraces carry a name of their own, Himmelreich, the kingdom of heaven. Among the vines stand Hiatahütten, the huts where vineyard watchmen once lived to guard the grapes. The soil is deep primary rock under a sandy, loamy topsoil that holds water well, and the site is celebrated for both riesling and grüner veltliner. The grüners are stony, taut and pure, with succulent acids, white pepper and sweet green herbs; even the lighter Federspiel can be a model of precision.

94 – Jamek Grüner Veltliner Achleiten Smaragd 2025, Wachau
Ahh, serious Achleiten GV here from Jamek, a reference for the vineyard and the Wachau in general. It’s a generous, dense and concentrated wine with ample, mouthfilling citrus and white-fleshed orchard fruit and succulent acids, neither oxidative nor reductive in style. Length is excellent. Well-measured, fine wine, best from 2028.

92 – Jamek Grüner Veltliner Achleiten Federspiel 2025, Wachau
Lovely, stony, cool and pure GV from the great Achleiten vineyard. This is a particularly fresh example from this cool but ultimately excellent vintage, with lovely crunchy acids and proper white pepper and sweet green herb flavours. I love the succulence and the precision; although “only” a Federspiel, I find it amazingly well balanced and highly drinkable, a sheer delight of precision and purity. Drink or hold mid-term.

92 – Jäger Grüner Veltliner Achleiten Smaragd 2025, Wachau
This is a seriously stony, taut, fresh and pure Achleiten grüner with evident ripeness and density, and a notable CO2 lift on the palate. Density and depth are very good, as is length. Perhaps not the top of the vineyard ladder, but a fairly priced and surely attractive wine from Jäger, best from about 2027.

Preussen (Nussberg, Wien)

The Nussberg is Vienna’s hill of vines, on the city’s northern edge, with wide views over the capital and wine taverns among the rows, all within walking distance of the end of the D tram line. Preussen lies a little to the west, farther from the Danube than its neighbours. The name has nothing to do with Prussia: it comes from Heinrich Preussel, who held the Urfar of Nussdorf, the right to land boats and run a ferry on the Danube bank, as a fief from 1277 to 1288. Calcareous sandstone bedrock reaches almost to the surface here, high in quartz and low in lime. Its 11.5 hectares face south and are planted to riesling and the field blends of Wiener Gemischter Satz. In the 2025 vintage both showed ripe but fresh fruit, generous acids that shape the flavours, and excellent length.

93 – Rotes Haus Chardonnay Preussen 1 ÖTW 2025, Wien
The 2025 is a fullish, fleshy, ripe but fresh chardonnay with minimal oak impact (although fermented and aged in wood), with significant, ripe acids and impressive depth and density. The ’25s from Rotes Haus are quite impressive across the 1 ÖTW range, a superb vintage to be sure. I’d cellar this until at least 2028 for best results. Field blend: 30% Chardonnay, 25% Weißer Burgunder, 20% Grauer Burgunder, 20% Neuburger, 5% Traminer.

93 – Wieninger Riesling Preussen 1 ÖTW 2025, Wien
Seems a much riper and more complete, comfortably balanced example of Preussen riesling in the excellent 2025 vintage relative to others, with fruit shifting from white into yellow and a richness and density that impress. Acids are nonetheless also generous and sculpt the flavours nicely. Excellent length. Drink or hold mid-term.

92 – Mayer am Pfarrplatz Wiener Gemischter Satz Preussen 1 ÖTW 2025, Wien
Lovely, clean, fresh, pure and precise, all stainless field blend here from Vienna, fullish, generously proportioned and fresh, with fully ripe fruit and excellent length and depth. I’m loving these 2025 vintage wines, with that combination of depth, ripeness and freshness that happens rarely. Drinking well now but no rush – should hold into the early ’30s without concern. Field blend: 40% Grüner Veltliner, 25% Riesling, 20% Rotgipfler, 15% Zierfandler.

92 – Fuhrgassl-Huber Riesling Preussen, Nussberg 1 ÖTW 2025, Wien
Comes across as a bit soft up front before sharp acids flow on the back palate, framing the lime-lemon flavours nicely. It’s taut and tight in the end, with good definition, sinewy and long. A bit of a sleeper; give another year or two in bottle to come together – it should emerge as a fine example.

That’s all for this special report. See you ’round the next bottle.

John Szabo, MS