Know your étiquette! Kamptal, Austria

We’re going back to Austria and a stone’s throw from the Wachau to visit the Kamptal.

Set on the River Kamp, it’s another white-wine paradise specialising in Grüner Veltliner. Riesling is seriously good, too, and because the region is a mite warmer than the Wachau, you’ll find a bit more red wine here (Zweigelt is the second most popular variety, albeit at just 12% of plantings).  

The producer is the wonderful Weingut Bründlmayer and this is a special wine from the sensational Lamm site. This one will set you back close to AU$150—for that you get a masterclass in what a vastly experienced, dedicated organic grower can do with a great grape variety and one of the best sites on the planet on which Grüner grows. This video briefly touches on the work of the Österreichische Traditionsweingüter (ÖTW), of which that fabulous gentleman Willi Bründlmayer has been a driving force.

The group “articulates itself in creating the antithesis to wine as a uniform mass-produced product, lacking individuality, without recognisability or any connexion to nature. Wine that demonstrates a perceptible relationship with its point of origin is our objective”.

You can find out more on ÖTW’s impressive website. I should add that within the specific winegrowing region of Kamptal - located within the generic winegrowing region of Niederösterreich - attaches its names to DAC wines from both Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. This means that Kamptal DAC can only be applied to these two varieties, as Austrian wine law recognises this grape/region affiliation to be particularly strong and distinctive.

As for this rendition of Lamm—well, it’s a super wine. A little over medium-bodied, the slowly waking palate offers a maze of hay, hazelnut, tobacco, yellow apple, mirabelle plum and pithy grapefruit with smoky, rocky tones and snaking, mellow length.