2022 Wachau and Lower Austria: An Overshadowed Vintage Worth Exploring

BY ANNE KREBIEHL MW | FEBRUARY 01, 2024

The first thing to state about Austria, emphatically so, is that its weather patterns are quite different from those of the more Atlantic-influenced classic and key regions in the rest of Europe, where, though things differ dramatically at a local level, a general tenor does nonetheless apply across the board. Not so in Austria. Its wine regions are tucked away in the deeply continental east of the country, behind the Alps. Cooling Alpine influences of a formerly marginal climate (just north of 48° latitude) meet the warming influences of the Pannonian Plain in Hungary. That said, 2022 was marked by a very dry summer.

Winter sunset in the Wachau.

2022: A Year with Challenges

Across Lower Austria, a relatively late budburst in late April, following a mild and dry winter, meant there was no danger of being caught in spring frost. But things were not smooth sailing. Here is Heinz Frischengruber, of Domäne Wachau in Dürnstein: “Flowering in June took time because it was cool and rainy. It was round-the-clock in the vineyards,” he notes, regarding the necessity of dealing with fungal disease pressure. “In high summer, unusual heat lasted until mid-August, by which time we had started performing rain dances.” The rain duly arrived from late August onwards. “Rain and cool weather took over and lasted until late September. Ripening and maturation were slow in a rather cool September, and we started harvesting on 20 September. The selection effort was immense. In October, an Indian summer with a spell of dry weather helped.” Their harvest concluded on 8 November. Frischengruber notes that there was a big difference between the flat sites closer to the Danube, subject to more disease pressure, and the elevated vineyards. His take on 2022 is that “it was difficult for the early-harvested wines.” Frischengruber casts some doubt about the longevity of the early harvested wines, but since most Smaragds were harvested late, no such doubt exists for them.

Refreshing Honesty and Modesty

While Frischengruber above speaks for the Wachau, what he reports also applies to Kremstal. Michael Malat, of the eponymous estate in Furth-Palt, on the right bank of the Danube, says that an “extremely selective harvest was needed.” But he is also clear that, while rain punctuated harvest, getting rain into the soil was a matter of survival for the vines after the dry stress of the summer. In Traisental, south of the Danube, in this slightly cooler and wetter region, Markus Huber says, “2022 was not late, but rather late-ripening, which I see as positive because it gives the wines lightness and freshness.” Likewise, Fred Loimer in Kamptal, where there was, in fact, more precipitation than average and “great water availability,” noted disease pressure at harvest. He says, “2022 is, by and large, a touch lighter, a touch less concentrated than 2021, slightly softer.” Andreas Wickhoff MW, of Weingut Bründlmayer in Langenlois, Kamptal is up-front when he says, “We hoped for more ripeness, especially in Grüner Veltliner.” Michael Moosbrugger, also in Langenlois, praises the “wonderful Indian summer. In Wagram, Anton Bauer notes that there was dryness in summer, which for him meant “more concentrated wines with slightly lower acidity.”