Beauty after the Rains: Austria’s Wet 2024 Gives Way to Rainbows

Lukas Pichler, the owner and winemaker at one of Austria’s great wine estates in the Wachau, had a sober expression as he described the anxiety gripping winegrowers across the Danube region during the 2024 harvest. He noted that the most recent vintage had nearly double the rainfall in some areas compared with 2023, which had also suffered a deluge.

“Last year [2024] we had 250 millimeters of rain and flooding during harvest,” Pichler said, as we tasted a range of his recently released 2024s at FX Pichler. Between Sept. 13 and 16, the Danube wine region was hit with a catastrophic downpour of 200 to 400 millimeters of rain in just four days – far more than the storms that had struck on exactly the same dates in 2023. The sheer volume amounted to roughly half the growing season’s average rainfall compressed into a single event.

Yet the majority of the wines we tasted were at a surprisingly high level of quality. Yes, there were a few disappointments, but not many more than in the 2023 vintage. The majority of the 1,000-plus white wines we rated for this report – out of more than 1,400 Austrian wines in total– were from 2024.

In fact, it was remarkable what some producers managed to achieve in the worst-affected areas through hypervigilant viticulture. Two of the three perfect-scoring wines in this report are 2024 whites – a gruner veltliner and a riesling – demonstrating that great wines could still be made from grapes picked well after the heavy September rains.

The concentrated yet airy Markus Huber Grüner Veltliner Traisental Berg EL 2024 is produced from 60-year-old vines that are farmed biodynamically but certified organic. Despite the “very challenging vintage,” winemaker Markus Huber managed to avoid rot in his winery but remarked that such a season 20 to 25 years ago “would have been a midsized catastrophe.” Conversations with producers like Huber revealed that years of careful soil and vineyard management were pivotal to crafting great wines in 2024.

The much cooler climate of the Traisental, compared with the sun-drenched banks of the Wachau, likely helped. Looking beyond the September rains, 2024 was a very warm vintage across the country. Many producers that Senior Editor Stuart Pigott and I spoke to in regions like Kremstal, Kamptal and Wachau had already started harvest before the rains, some as early as August for earlier-ripening varieties.

The rains effectively delayed much of the harvest for one or two weeks, and concerns were high over waterlogged soils, particularly in terraced vineyards. Sites with loess soils posed the greatest challenge because of their water-retentive nature.

“The grapes took in water, but we waited,” said Martin Nigl, whose winery is based in the Kremstal region. “We expected to get a lot of botrytis immediately, but luckily the grapes were healthier than expected. We just selected.”

Nigl said that they had started picking in August and explained that low yields from spring frosts combined with warm temperatures resulted in hastened ripening, particularly for gruner veltliner.

“Late frost at the end of April damaged 40 percent [of the vineyards] at our winery – not just the classical vineyards, but also the warmer sites on the slopes,” he said.

Rudi Pichler in the Wachau region told Stuart on our 10-day trip to Austria in September that his eponymous winery (he is not related to Lukas Picher) did not bottle any riesling Federspiel in 2024 due to spring frost and then hail in the summer. Federspiel refers to the appellation’s classification of wines that fall within 11.5 to 12.5 percent alcohol, the important category in between the lighter Steinfeder and the more powerful Smaragd. Excellent Smaragd wines, however, were made from grapes picked well after the rains.

Our other 100-point white, the Franz Hirtzberger Riesling Wachau Ried Singerriedel Smaragd 2024, is strikingly elegant, pure and racy, evolving from white stone fruit and lemons to a wet-stone and seashell-like minerality on an endless finish. The 2024 has less richness than the 2023, which we also received a perfect score last year. Winemaker Franz Hirtzberger Jr. said that he has been “trying to turn little dials” toward freshness over the last 10 years.

“We had the good and bad luck of 200 millimeters of rain,” Hirtzberger said of 2024. “We lost about 30 percent of the riesling, but on the other hand, it extended our ripening period by about three weeks and we didn’t have to pick in hot weather anymore.”

The “bad luck” of heavy flooding caused significant structural damage, toppling about 300 square meters of terrace-supporting stone walls in Hirtzberger’s vineyards. Workers in Nigl’s vineyards were repairing some of theirs during our visit.

To the south, Burgenland was less affected and Steiermark emerged completely unscathed from the heavy rains in 2024, though we primarily tasted 2023 and 2022 wines from these regions.

In Steiermark, 2023 was a wet season with mildew pressures, yet the quality we tasted was high. The Wohlmuth Sauvignon Blanc Südsteiermark Ried Edelschuh GSTK 2023 is a standout wine from the region, blending freshness and delicacy with concentration and complexity.

We tasted a wide range of varieties in the Steiermark, and all shared the qualities of fantastic minerality and salty freshness. Even aromatic grapes like gelber muskateller and sauvignon blanc – the region’s flagship grape – show refreshing stony qualities to the usual herbal, spice and fruit characteristics, as do non-aromatic varieties like weissburgunder (pinot blanc) and morillon (chardonnay).

From the 2022 vintage, the Erwin Sabathi Chardonnay Südsteiermark Ried Pössnitzberger Kapelle GSTK 2022 and the Tement Sauvignon Blanc Südsteiermark Ried Zieregg Kapelle GSTK 2022 – GSTK indicating Styrian grand-cru vineyard equivalent – both stood out for their depth and intensity. And wineries like Gross, Sattlerhof and Tement have outstanding current releases from one of the best vintages of the century, 2021.

But the standout white wine from outside the Danube region was the Kollwentz Chardonnay Burgenland Gloria 2023, an Austrian chardonnay masterpiece from the warmer Burgenland that shows precision in its balance between richness and chalky, mineral freshness.

This report also features Austria’s first ever 100-point red wine, the Moric Blaufränkisch Burgenland Lutzmannsburg Alte Reben 2023. Crafted from vines over 80 years old – some exceeding 120 – this medium-bodied wine is intensely mineral, fresh and concentrated, accompanied by violet, cherry and elderberry aromas. Matured for 24 months in used 500-liter oak casks, it displays remarkable fruit purity.

“We are not obsessed with making great wines, rather originals that reflect the climate and soil,” Moric founder/winemaker Roland Velich told Stuart. The 2023 Alte Reben achieved perfection after three 99-point scores among its past five releases. It was an excellent season in Burgenland, the summer less hot and dry compared with 2024 and the fall ideal for tannin development.

Despite the success of Moric and Schuster with blaufrankisch in Burgenland,  could warming temperatures prompt producers from other regions to make more red wines?

Two more Burgenland wines made from blaufrankisch were also among our most highly rated wines. The Schuster Blaufränkisch Burgenland Müllendorf Ried Santen 2023 is super-racy, silky and explosive. As for the the Moric Blaufränkisch Burgenland Lutzmannsburg Ried Maissner 2023, Stuart likened the greatness of the vineyard to Burgundy’s Richebourg Grand Cru for its delicacy, structure and aromatics.

Despite the success of Moric and Schuster with blaufrankisch in Burgenland, could warming temperatures prompt producers from other regions to make more red wines?

Hirtzberger said he didn’t see that happening in the Wachau. “Because of the identity of the region and the soils, you'd have to plant red wines in the very best gruner sites. It's not where I see the Wachau.”

But Hirtzberger does believe that the climate in the Wachau is more favorable than ever for riesling and gruner veltliner, telling me that the 2021 to 2024 vintages show a very high average quality, despite 2024’s variability.

“In the '80s, you just didn't get the grapes ripe, it was far away from what we now know as average quality,” Hirtzberger said. “As much as climate warming is a big problem, in terms of Wachau wine we are in a very comfortable window.”

Looking to 2025, an early harvest is underway after a very dry and uncomplicated season across the country. In Steiermark, timely mid-July rains alleviated an unusually dry summer. Sekt (sparkling wine) grapes were picked by early September; still-wine harvesting started mid-September in Sudsteiermark and soon after along the Danube. Some Danube producers likened the fruit of 2025 to the stellar 2021 vintage.

As Stuart and I departed Austria in mid-September, winemakers were optimistic about the success of the 2025 vintage. We look forward to seeing how the wines taste when we return next year.

– Claire Nesbitt, Staff Writer & Critic

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