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Although its cultivation area declined for many years after 1999, Grüner Veltliner is still Austria's most important grape variety. It occupies almost half of the country's vineyard area, with the lion's share distributed among the Lower Austrian wine-growing regions north and east of Vienna, and the area steadily decreasing towards the west and especially the south. Finally, in Styria there is none at all, while the neighbouring countries of Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary also have quite significant areas of Veltliner.
ÖWM / Gerhard Trumler

The variety has nothing to do with the rest of the Veltliner family (only the rare Grauer Veltliner is a mutation). Its parents are Gewürztraminer and St. Georgen, which was only rediscovered in 2000 and named after the place of its discovery.

Grüner Veltliner tends to have high yields, which one must not let it get away with if one wants to produce high-quality wines. It has inherited less of the distinctive aroma from Traminer, but more of the tendency towards high sugar levels. This means that it requires a certain sensitivity from producers when it comes to balancing yield reduction with too early and too high ripeness. Basic Veltliner can be a wonderfully drinkable, delicately juicy, pleasantly unobtrusive fruity wine, but it can also be a banal, thin little wine. Top wines can be dense, rich and complex or, in extreme cases, ponderous and alcoholic. However, more and more producers are abandoning the widespread view in Austria that the more powerful a wine is, the better it is, and are increasingly producing lean, finesse-rich Veltliners, even at the top end. At their best, they are at least as complex and expressive as their more alcoholic counterparts, but they are much easier to drink and often have a clearer character of origin.

In general, Veltliner is at its best when it is vinified bone dry. Even a few grams of residual sugar can quickly cause the wine to lose precision, especially in the strong varieties. Successful sweet wines are rare, but they do exist.

We tasted well over 300 wines for this BEST OF last year. We present the best ones here and as PDF here. You can find links to all the Grüner Veltliners tasted with detailed tasting notes, including many other recommendable wines, as well as their producers by clicking on the region names.

Wachau 2018

Wachau 2017

Wachau older vintages

Kamptal DAC 2018

Kamptal DAC 2017

Kamptal DAC older vintages

Kremstal DAC 2018

Kremstal DAC 2017

Wagram

Weinviertel DAC

Lower Austria

Vienna

  • 90WP 2013 Ried Kaasgraben, Wieninger
  • 89WP 2017 Ried Nussberg-Haarlocke, Hajszan Neumann

Leithaberg DAC

Wine Country Austria

Edelsüß

Sparkling wine PDO

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