Austria’s Riesling and Grüner Veltliner: 2016’s Challenges Met

Part Two: Kamptal & Wachau

BY DAVID SCHILDKNECHT | DECEMBER 13, 2018 

The tension and excitement (in a single German word, “Spannung”) that attended the 2016 growing season for Austrian Riesling and Grüner Veltliner, as well as the resulting wines, were predictably nowhere more evidenced than in the Wachau and Kamptal. Lovers of Austrian Riesling and Grüner Veltliner are likely to discover much joy in investigating and drinking the finest 2016s. 

“Two thousand sixteen was different from other difficult vintages,” said Peter Malberg, laughing, “in that the entire year was catastrophic!” And where he and his winery reside—namely in the Spitzer Graben, intersecting the Danube at right angles near the extreme west of the Wachau—that isn’t hyperbole. Late-April frost decimated that sector. It also played havoc with a great many other vineyards in the Wachau and Kamptal, although top sites in the latter region escaped relatively unscathed due in large part to their elevation. The second major hardship that most growers in Lower Austria—like their counterparts nearly everywhere in northern Europe—had to surmount was the extraordinarily wet spring and early summer of 2016, with its attendant outbreak of peronospora (a.k.a. downy mildew). But in that respect too, the perspective from Malberg’s corner of the Wachau was more alarming than the view from other parts of Lower Austria. Generally speaking, the farther east one went, the lower the fungal pressure.

Onward and upward: Even in Dürnstein's iconic Kellerberg vineyard, uppermost terraces have often been neglected or abandoned for generations. The Tegernseerhof has just planted what will surely prove a valuable hedge against climatic warming.

A Look on the Bright Side