Carnuntum

 

The vineyard of Rosenberg was almost silent when I visited at the end of July. I could hear cicadas croaking and the soughing of the wind, but that was about it. Rows of vines stretched down the gentle green slope towards the small town of Göttlesbrunn, beyond which the ground rose again towards a windfarm. Stones and pebbles lay on the soil beneath the vines, but the ground between the rows was covered in grass.

 

Rosenberg

        Sleepy Göttlesbrunn is in the heart of the small Austrian vine-growing region of Carnuntum, a short drive to the east of Vienna Airport. The wind blows three hundred days a year, lowering disease pressure to such a degree that the majority of production is organic. 

 

On the day I arrived, the temperature hit thirty-three degrees. The heat is, however, mitigated by forests and the River Danube, which flows unseen just a few miles to the north. ‘The Danube gives us cool nights’, according to Johanna Markowitsch of Weingut Markowitsch.

 

Göttlesbrunn

This being Austria, it should come as no surprise that a lot of very good white wines are made in Carnuntum. The Grüner Veltliners I tried were fuller-bodied than those from famous regions further west like the Wachau, with a lovely rich mouthfeel from long lees ageing or barrel fermentation. ‘We believe in working a lot with the lees’, said Hanna Glatzer of Weingut Glatzer, another producer in Göttlesbrunn.

 

Wines made from Grüner Veltliner can be labelled 'Carnuntum DAC', a designation which is used for regionally typical wines. Wines made from four other grape varieties – Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), Chardonnay, Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch- may also be labelled this way. Blends, known as 'cuvées' here, qualify as Carnuntum DAC wines as long as two thirds of the blend comes from the grapes mentioned above. 

 

Chardonnay is a favourite at Weingut Markowitsch. Johanna Markowitsch commented that Chardonnay ‘can deal with the sun but also loves the cool nights’ in Carnuntum. She drove me to Ried Schüttenberg, a vineyard whose high limestone content suits the grape. It abuts the Maria Ellender Wald, a large forest north of the vineyards in Göttlesbrunn, which has a cooling effect.

 

Bunches of grapes on the vines in Schüttenberg were shrouded by black nets as a protection against wild boar and deer. I saw these nets elsewhere in Austria, where the main concern was hail. Markowitsch’s Ried Schüttenberg Chardonnay 2023, a ‘riedenwein’ (single vineyard wine), was mouth-filling with a touch of new oak. ‘The idea of all our whites is that they have power but also good acidity’, Johanna Markowitsch told me.

 

        Carnuntum is more renowned for its red wines, though. In the vineyard of Rosenberg I saw tiny Merlot berries growing on the vine. They were green, having not yet gone through véraison. Merlot apparently grows well on sand and gravel soils in Carnuntum, but Hanna Glatzer deemed it ‘challenging’ because its sugar content shoots up before the seeds are ripe.

 

        The most planted red grape in Carnuntum, and indeed Austria, is Zweigelt. In the vineyard of Rosenberg, it’s grown on clay, which is rare in Carnuntum. I was informed, however, that it can grow successfully just about anywhere, explaining its ubiquity. Although widely planted, Zweigelt 'doesn’t have the best reputation’, in the words of Benjamin Edthofer of Weingut Wieninger in Vienna, who said that it ‘can be tricky as a single varietal wine’.

 

Zweigelt ‘has many faces’, according to Johanna Markowitsch, but the wines tend to be full-bodied and always have a dark fruit character, with cherry a common flavour. The dark cherry note was also mentioned by Hanna Glatzer, who observed that Zweigelt has more ‘charming’ tannins than the other leading red grape in Carnuntum, Blaufränkisch.

 

        Hanna Glatzer had many interesting things to say about red wines. She observed that Blaufränkisch has blackberry, earthy and spicy notes in Carnuntum, with a tannin structure similar to that found in the French grape Syrah. You won't find jammy, overripe reds made in the region, despite the intense summer heat. 'Carnuntum wines are approachable', she said.

 

Lighter reds are also made in Carnuntum, from Pinot Noir and Sankt Laurent. I find it hard to get excited about the former, as shown by the fact that I didn't write a tasting note about the Pinot Noir I was given at Weingut Markowitsch. I was more eager to try a Sankt Laurent, although the one I tasted at Weingut Glatzer reminded me of a Pinot Noir! Hanna Glatzer remarked that it has good natural acidity and 'silky and smooth' tannins.

 

         The next day I drove to the region of Wagram, an hour to the west. The soil is mostly loess and it was very sunny and warm, so my mind turned to Washington State, where lovely red wines, especially Merlots, are made.  Inspired by my time in Carnuntum, I asked a winemaker if Merlot was grown in Wagram. The answer was an emphatic no. Perhaps my question came twenty years too soon.