Austria — wine

Burgenland

Burgenland, bordering Hungary along the shallow Neusiedlersee lake, produces Austria's most distinctive red wines and the world's greatest botrytised dessert wines. Blaufränkisch — Burgenland's indigenous red grape — produces concentrated, spiced, iron-mineral wines from iron-rich slate soils (Eisenberg, Mittelburgenland). The Neusiedlersee lake generates consistent autumn fog enabling noble rot (Botrytis cinerea), producing Ausbruch and TBA dessert wines of 500+ g/L residual sugar. Gut Oggau's amphora-aged wines and Moric's single-vineyard Blaufränkisch have brought international recognition.

Year Rating Notes
2019 93 Third excellent Burgenland vintage in four years — Blaufränkisch of excellent character and longevity.
2017 94 Excellent Burgenland vintage — warm and dry with September precision. Blaufränkisch of excellent structure and longevity.
2015 96 Burgenland's greatest Blaufränkisch vintage of the 21st century — hot, dry conditions produced Moric Alte Reben of extraordinary graphite-mineral concentration. Umathum Hallebühl equally impressive. Also produced exceptional TBA from Neusiedlersee botrytis.
2013 95 The decade's most critically acclaimed Burgenland red vintage — perfectly ripe Blaufränkisch with exceptional natural acidity. Moric 2013 Lutzmannsburg is regularly cited as the finest Blaufränkisch ever made.