ÖhlzeltRiesling Kogelberg (750ml)

Barbara Öhlzelt is turning the region’s paradigm completely on its head. Instead of the unctuous, powerful and masculine wines of the famous large estates, Barbara’s wines emphasize focus and a quiet, simmering intensity. They are fine, clearly delineated, precisely-etched renditions of Grüner Veltliner and Riesling with just as much depth and persistence as the big boys, but on a lighter, more refreshing frame. They really are like the wines of Weiser-Künstler, but translated into the dialect of the Kamptal – loess, granite and sandstone, rather than slate. It should go without saying, but of course the wines are loaded with mouth-watering acidity and the alcohol levels are carefully restrained. Barbara is soft-spoken but intense; the wines are not unlike their shepherd. These are racy, delicate wines of purity and energy, and are exactly what the next chapter in the story of Austrian wine should be.

The heart of Barbara’s estate is the Kogelberg—a single vineyard site on a broad spur of the high Waldviertel plateau sloping southeast towards the Zöbing village – the location here has substantual diurnal shift and is not as hot as Heiligenstein yet not as cool as Seeberg. This is a less-famous site, situated a bit further up the valley, on the other side of the river Kamp, behind Barbara’s hometown village of Zöbing. Yet this site is perhaps one of the best in the Kamptal – it is my favorite, for whatever that’s worth. These are among the oldest vines Barbara farms: 60-year-old vines planted so narrowly that no tractors nor machines can be used in her parcels here. The terroir here is much different, it is more a mixed soil with a wide array of metamorphic rocks, including granite, gneiss, quartzite (the metamorphic form of sandstone, as it were) and amphibolite. As it is higher up into the valley, the site also feels more of the cooling winds coming from the northern Weinviertel. These vines tend to produce very small bunches that lead to a very intense and precise wine.

Put simply: For me, this is simply Barbara’s greatest Riesling, her greatest wine and one of the top wines of the Kamptal and beyond. This is the wine you can put on the table next to Alzinger’s Steinertal or Knoll’s Kellerberg – try it for yourself. The Heiligenstein, above, feels so tense and nervous and linear… and then you try this wine, and it is even more extreme. The minerality is darker, more bass-toned and mysterious (as sometimes happens for me with metamorphic soils), yet the overall feel here is green and blue, ultra-cool tones, meyer lemon and lime zest, ultra-concentrated orange oils that add a flash of exoticism, restrained, balanced and sharpened by an almost bitter dark green forest note, pine-needle resin at the back end, providing a formidable structure to the wine – an outstanding length. This wine is a masterpiece honestly.