2024 Wachau and Lower Austria: Calamities and Coups de Coeur
BY ANNE KREBIEHL, MW |
Frost, hail, heat and high water —nature threw everything at winegrowers in Lower Austria in 2024. More than one grower used the term “catastrophe” to describe the huge effort it took to bring home healthy grapes. A warm March meant some of the earliest budbursts ever, making vines vulnerable to late spring frosts in April. Heat and drought posed a challenge in summer, while torrential rains in mid-September not only caused widespread flooding but also collapsed drystone walls and caused wide cracks on unsealed roads. Some estates had dramatically low yields, some were lucky to escape relatively unscathed, but all were worried about what the rain would do to their fruit. Quality is thus more mixed in 2024, yet there are plenty of highlights and coups de coeur nonetheless.
Sunshine breaking through the clouds in the Wagram.
Jack Frost
April was indeed the cruelest month in Austria. Assessing the frost damage, an agricultural insurance company offered this summary of the year’s events: “After a very warm January, the warmest February and hottest March in Austria’s 257-year history of weather data, as well as the earliest 30°C day of the year on 7 April, an extreme cool-down followed. The advance of cold air, combined with vegetation on average three weeks ahead of the seasonal norm, caused much damage to fruit and viticulture.” Following forecasts, many growers lit frost candles. This was effective for some but less so for others, especially as the frost occurred in sites that are not typically vulnerable. Jack Frost arrived in two waves, hitting estates unevenly. Michael Malat, in Palt, Kremstal, lost 40% of his crop to frost, while Geyerhof, only minutes away but lying slightly higher, only had three vine rows with some frost damage. In Traisental, Markus Huber, escaped the frost completely, as did Viennese winemakers, but the latter suffered hail in July and August.
In the Wachau, the frost affected areas around Rossatz and Arnsdorf (both on the right bank of the Danube) and the Spitzer Graben worst, as well as Weissenkirchen. Situated in Elsarn, up in the Spitzer Graben, Melanie and Martin Muthenthaler lost 70% of their yield. Franz Hitzberger Jr., in Spitz, where the Spitzer Graben opens towards the Danube, did not have any “significant” frost damage, but he noted that they “put up a fight,” lighting almost 3,000 frost candles. The Bodensteins, at Weingut Prager in Weissenkirchen, lost half of their Steinriegl fruit, despite frost candles and the site’s modest elevation.
High up in Senftenberg, on the river Krems in Kremstal, Patrick Proidl lost 40% of his fruit to frost. On the Wagram/Kamptal border at the Bernhard Ott estate, frost-fighting teams were on call each of the chilly nights, lighting and extinguishing candles, but with temperatures dipping down to -6°C just before sunrise, no number of candles could save the entire crop. Ott reported losses of 25-30%. Kamptal, after 2023’s horrendous hail damage, was hit hard by frost. Johannes Hirsch said it was the worst frost in the area since 1961, resulting in tiny yields when “the frost burnt a swath from the valley up the mountainside.” At Bründlmayer, also in the Kamptal, frost took 20% of the fruit.
Despite a challenging 2024 with much frost damage, Melanie Muthenthaler has much to smile about. The wines are stunning.
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Frost, hail, heat and high water—nature threw everything at winegrowers in Lower Austria in 2024. A warm March led to some of the earliest budbursts ever, making vines vulnerable to late spring frosts in April. Heat and drought posed a challenge in summer, while torrential rains in mid-September caused widespread flooding. Some estates had dramatically lower yields, some were lucky to escape relatively unscathed, but all were worried about what the rain would do to their fruit. Quality is thus more mixed in 2024, yet there are highlights and coups de coeur nonetheless.
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Producers in this Article
- Alzinger
- Bernhard Ott
- Bründlmayer
- Christ
- Clemens Strobl
- Crazy Creatures
- Domæne Roland Chan
- Domäne Wachau
- Emmerich Knoll
- Erich Machherndl
- Franz Hirtzberger
- Franz Michael Mayer
- Frischengruber
- Geyerhof
- Gritsch Mauritiushof
- Hajszan Neumann
- Hirsch
- Hofkellerei des Fürsten von Liechtenstein
- Josef Jamek
- Josef Nigl
- Jurtschitsch
- Jutta Ambrositsch
- Kalmuck
- Leindl
- Loimer
- Malat
- Markus Huber
- Martin Muthenthaler
- Mayer am Pfarrplatz
- Nigl
- Nikolaihof Wachau
- Pichler-Krutzler
- Prager
- Proidl
- Rotes Haus
- Rudi Pichler
- Salomon – Undhof
- Schloss Gobelsburg
- Weingut F. X. Pichler
- Weinhofmeisterei Hirtzberger
- Wess
- Wieninger
- Zederbauer
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