The Comprehensive Local

The Burgenland is the most temperate part of Austria. Although it didn’t feel particularly balmy on the December afternoon I was there, some vestigial warmth could certainly be felt in the small market town of Großhöflein. It’s here that you’ll find Weingut Wagentristl, a small family winery, tending 12 hectares of vineyards and producing 45,000 bottles, all run by 30-year-old Kellermeister Rudolf Wagentristl. I first met Rudi, as he’s known, at a Leithaberg DAC tasting in London and I was keen to visit him when I was next in Austria. My trip was more than amply rewarded.

Rudi is the fifth generation of Wagentristls to make wine in Großhöflein and he’s really taken the bull by the horns, producing new lines, getting a chic Viennese marketing company on board and creating an excellent new website. But none of that would register if the fundamentals of his business weren’t securely in place. Rest assured, you’re in safe hands with Rudi, one of the most encyclopaedic people I’ve ever heard talking about wine… and not just his own. Couple nascent talent with a flair for hospitality – the Austrians outstrip almost any other nation in this regard – and a sensitivity to loyal local customers and you have a winery that’s in really rude health. It’s just a shame, as I noted back in November, that Wagentristl’s wines aren’t currently available in the UK.

The quality of Rudi’s work is absolutely evident right across the range. The light and breezy whites – with 2014 Welschriesling, Muskateller & Co. and Weißburgunder already available – are good quaffable drinking wines, though you shouldn’t overlook the impressive floral notes in the Muskateller, proving that these whites aren’t all about green grass tastes. Turn to the 2013 Leithaberg Chardonnay, however, and you’re in full grown-up territory, with a superb balance of fruit and minerality… little wonder this is Rudi’s signature white.

Strength and spice are predominant in the reds from the prime Wagentristl sites around the area. As I wrote back in November, the Leithaberg terroir brings significant complexity to Blaufränkisch, but if had to make choices from this excellent range, then I’d plump for the deeper soils of the Föllikberg, south of Großhöflein, where the fruit just slightly outshines the minerality – it’s also one of the sites where the Gelber Muskateller and Muskat Ottonel are grown for Rudi’s excellent sweet wines – or the more aromatic Zweigelt from the warm microclimate of the Setzen vineyard. The Kreideberg Pinot Noir is a manifestly elegant example of the grape, though you may, like me, prefer the 2012 Gutswein Pinot Noir, offering delicious jammy fruit as well as darker notes.

In a cross-range tasting, those succulent flavours often get my vote – call me a cheap date! – though I’m coming to admire the minerality of the Leithaberg Blaufränkisch wines more and more every time I taste them. But the final and lasting memory I have is of Rudi’s beautifully balanced Trockenbeerenauslese Cuvée. Here, unlike some of his colleagues in the Burgenland, he doesn’t let the sugar cloy and run away with the prize. A healthy dose of acidity lets you really enjoy the wine itself, as fresh as it is luxurious, closing an excellent afternoon’s tasting.

But it was plain to see that I wasn’t alone in my admiration for Rudi’s wine. A family, who had previously lived in the area, had come down from North Germany to Großhöflein to taste the latest additions to the range – including Rudi’s bubbly Rosa Sprudl – as well as to catch up with some of their old favourites. Various people popped in from the village while I was there and the Wagentristl parents were constantly packing up cases of wine and loading them into the vans and cars of happy locals. It’s really cheering to see this winery cherished by its community, as well as, year on year, increasing numbers of commercial and restaurant customers… but it’s high time that Weingut Wagentristl was seen on shelves and wine lists far beyond the German-speaking world. Meantime, you can order your own selection via the winery’s excellent new website.