Austria’s Zippy But Erratic 2020 Vintage

I was in Austria twice during the fall of 2020 and was stunned to find how green everything was compared with the parched and browned state of Germany, which was then suffering the worst drought in living memory. When I met Dr. Bertold Salomon of the Salomon Undhof estate on the Danube in the Kremstal region of Austria, he told me: “After three hot and dry vintages we are confronted with a wet year. This makes the harvest difficult; we must wait longer for ripeness and only pick on the dry days.”

He talked at length about how wet years used to be rather common in Austria, but that the 2020 growing season felt a bit strange because of the warmer and drier “new normal” that climate change has created there.

So far this year we have been able to taste just over 400 Austrian wines, the majority of them dry whites from the 2020 vintage. Because most of the single-vineyard bottlings don’t come onto the market until Sept. 1, our focus has been on the modestly priced regional and village wines. So this report is largely about asking if and where value for money can be found.

The first point to make about the new Austrian vintage is that the excellent 2019 is a tough act to follow. The 2019s are uniformly concentrated and finely nuanced with great balance. I put a bunch of them in my own cellar, but the best of them need some time to give their best and will be long-living. The successful wines of the 2020 vintage serve a different purpose, because of their special personality. Let me explain.

During the last three months of the growing season in Langenlois/Kamptal (August to October) when the grapes were ripening, 254mm, or 10 inches, of rain fell ­– almost 70% more than the long-term average. This, together with less summer heat than in the previous three years, resulted in the grapes ripening more slowly and retaining more acidity.

In the unsuccessful Austrian 2020s, that acidity can be quite dominant. However, in the best dry whites the acidity is vibrant without being sharp, which, in combination with their moderate alcohol, gives them a vibrant and zippy personality. If you’re looking for refreshing drinking during the coming months, that’s all good news. Also, if you became familiar with Austrian dry whites before climate change made high ripeness a regular occurrence, then you will feel at home with the best 2020s. And if you enjoy the crisp dry whites like those from the Loire in France, then the best 2020 Austrian whites should also appeal to you.

However, there’s another pitfall with some of the new wines. A generation ago, such a rainy summer would have been very cool indeed, but due to climate change that wasn’t the case. In 2020 the summer was significantly warmer than the long-term average and the consequence of this was simple: rain plus warmth equaled rot.

The threat of rot to the crop began long before the grapes started ripening. Downy mildew can develop from the moment the vines’ new shoots reach 10cm in length and it can destroy foliage (the vines’ solar panel) as well as blooming grapes. Austria’s wine producers – particularly the growing number who work organically or biodynamically – needed to be right on top of downy mildew from well before vine bloom in 2020.

Later, when the grapes begin ripening, they become susceptible to Botrytis. Under ideal conditions this fungus results in noble rot, but under conditions like those of the 2020 harvest in Austria it can easily turn the grapes into a mushy mass lacking in attractive aromas. The producers needed to wait for the grapes to ripen, but the longer the grapes hung in the wet conditions the greater the risk from Botrytis became.

“For the first time since 2014 we were picking grapes for dry wines into November,” Andreas Wickhoff MW of Brundlmayer explained, “and for us the long-lasting 2020 harvest had a happy ending.” However, that wasn’t the case for everyone, particularly in those vineyards where the canopy and soil management were far from perfect.

Selective picking was necessary everywhere, and our impression is that this was generally successful. However, we did encounter some wines tainted by a touch of Botrytis. Both rejecting rot-affected grapes and waiting so long to pick reduced the yield considerably. “We lost quantity for the sake of quality,”  Wickhoff MW said. At Brundlmayer, the average yield for the entire was well under 30 hectoliters per hectare, and in some places, notably the Wachau, yields were also cut by hail at the end of the summer.

Of course, we recommend that you look at our notes and ratings for each individual wine when making your buying decisions, but we see a pattern in them. Some producers clearly struggled with the 2020 vintage, while others, such as Brundlmayer, Salomon Undhof, Markus Huber in Reichersdorf/Traisental and Emmerich Knoll in Loiben/Wachau, seemed to get everything right. Their wines are racy, aromatic and expressive with moderate alcohol and great freshness – all the good things traditionally associated with Austrian dry whites. They are also excellent value for money.

For the first time we also tasted a large number of dry whites from the Steiermark, sometimes called Styria in English. This green and hilly region on the border with Slovenia specializes in crisp and aromatic dry whites, and it is rightly best known for sauvignon blanc and chardonnay (sometimes called Morillon). There were some standout wines from the Lackner-Tinnacher, Polz, Tement and Wohlmuth wineries that we recommend trying if you’re not familiar with them. The Steiermark is clearly on a roll!

– Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor