Austrian Excellence

The 2023 Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners hit the sweet spot between ripeness and elegance

- BY KRISTEN BIELER

Often, it's the less elite wines that provide the truest assessment of a vintage's quality. For Bernhard Ott, one of Austria's finest Grüner Veltliner specialists, that would be the Fass 4, his entry-level wine named for the fass (barrel) selected each year by a customer of his father's. It's Ott's benchmark: a blend of two estate vineyards in Kamptal and Wagram which therefore carries the wider Niederösterreich designation. “I believe the 2023 Fass 4 is the best we've ever made,” he says. “For the style of wine we strive to make, 2023 was perfect—and you see it clearly in the Fass 4.”

It's hard to argue with Ott's appraisal of this ripe, spicy, salty Grüner (91 points, $33), which is showing beautifully out of the gate. (His range of elite single-vineyard Grüners tend to need more time in bottle to fully express themselves, so the 2023s weren't released in time for this report.) As a snapshot, the Fass 4 paints an excellent picture of Austria's 2023 vintage. Among the nearly 150 wines I reviewed for this report, I found remarkable density and juicy fruit, with the '23 Grüners showing less peppery, herbaceous spice than in cooler years—but only for those working in Ott's meticulous way. The growing season was challenging, with turbulent weather events: a dry winter leading to spring rains, then heat, followed by hail and uneven ripening. Overall, acidity levels were lower and alcohol levels slightly higher, so a number of wines show heat and a lack of balance.