The little country that could — again

Austria’s wine makers are slowly but surely bouncing back from scandal

When it comes to wine, it’s easy to overlook Austria, tucked away in the Alps in east-central Europe. For European wines, the Big Three — France, Italy, and Spain — take up most of the shelf space at the liquor store, as well as most of the ink spilled in wine magazines.

Internationally as well, Austrian wine is swamped by many countries — not least by the similarly-named country Down Under. (Although no one would mistake an Australian wine for an Austrian after tasting it — you’ll know it has a kangaroo on the bottle with one jammy sip.) South American wines, such as the Bordeaux-style wines from Chile, have also found a perfect balance of quality and quantity that has begun to challenge European hegemony, leaving Austria in particular out of the conversation. Even many smaller countries which produce predominantly white wines have eclipsed Austria — New Zealand, as an example, now has a more well-established international reputation for its classic expressions of Sauvignon Blanc.

It wasn’t always like this. In fact, at the beginning of the 20th century, Austria was the third-largest wine producer in the world,producing tons of the stuff for the German market, a state of affairs which continued largely unchanged until the 1980s — when the “antifreeze scandal” hit.

In an effort to keep up with demand in Germany, Austrian winemakers were being stretched thin: they were already making cheap, light and acidic wines — stuff made for quick quaffing, in other words. But they went too far when they tried to cut the acidity of the wines by adding diethylene glycol, which sweetened the wine. Problem is, diethylene glycol is used in antifreeze — not exactly the type of quality ingredients wine drinkers expect in their daily tipple. The scandal blew up in 1985, when one knucklehead wine merchant hilariously tried to claim his use of the chemical on his taxes.

It was a tremendous blow to the Austrian wine-making industry, but the scandal was also a blessing in disguise: a national quality-control board was set up in the aftermath, and producers and merchants had to refocus themselves on making reputable wines from quality ingredients. Today, Austria has climbed back up to 17th place on the list of wine-producing nations. Still, like a great many smaller wine-producing countries, the majority of wines are drunk domestically — meaning exports are both fewer and pricier than those from their larger neighbours.

If you’ve had an Austrian wine, it was most likely a Grüner Veltliner, as fully one-third of Austria’s wine crop is planted in this white wine varietal. Like any widely-planted grape, Grüner Veltliner comes in a myriad of calibers — and Spätlese is the classification to look for.

(Austrian and German wine labels are notoriously complicated, requiring an entire column of their own. Briefly, Spätlese is on the dryer end of Prädikatsweins (literally, “top quality wines”), with Eisweins being near the sweet end of the Prädikatswein spectrum.)

Typically, aGrüner Veltliner will have a light body, slight acid and a hint of white pepper. Grüner Veltliner has a reputation for being very flexible in pairing with food, even going well with hard-to-match dishes such as asparagus and artichoke. They’re becoming more well-known on this side of the Atlantic, so grab a bottle next time you’re looking for something refreshing.

Among reds, Zweigelt is also gaining recognition outside its country of origin.Across between Blaufrankisch (Gamay) and St. Laurent (an Austrian red varietal), Zweigelt was created by Dr. Fritz Zweigelt in 1922, making it a relatively recent arrival on the wine scene. Originally called Rotburger,the name of Zweigelt was changed both to honour its creator and, well, for obvious reasons. (“Waiter, another glass of that lovely Rotburger,please.” Yeah, right.)

The influence of the Blaufrankisch grape means that Zweigelt drinks a lot like a Beaujolais would — it’s a lighter red that pairs well with lighter fare, rather than steaks, for example. Try a schnitzel instead, or sausage.

Though produced in much smaller quantity than either Grüner Veltliner or Zweigelt, the Riesling grape claims a significant portion of the prestige market when it comes to Austrian wines. German Rieslings from the Alsace or Mosel regions have firmly established themselves as top-tier European wines, but their Austrian cousins are catching up in quality.

Among white wine varietals, Riesling is the antithesis of Chardonnay: where Chardonnay is rich, buttery, and oaky, Riesling is crisp, with hints of minerals and petroleum. (Petrol doesn’t mean it tastes like gasoline, and flinty does not mean it tastes like sucking on rocks — but it does mean you don’t want a Riesling with your creamy Alfredo sauce.) It pairs well with fish and pork, but it also goes quite well with Asian cuisine — it can stand the heat of most Thai dishes, for example.

In terms of wine production, Austria will be an interesting country to watch in the future. Once producing vast quantities of chugging wine for export, Austria needed a nasty scandal to modernize its wine industry, and they had to work very hard to win people back. They have — and they’re definitely worth a try.