In 70’s & 80’ Austrian & German wine industry, was known mainly for producing sweet and semi sweet wines. To make quality sweet wines you need grapes with high sugar levels. A vintage lacking sunshine would make it almost impossible to make sweet wines. Well… if you are contracted to making medium sweet wines for the mass market, you are in financial mess if can’t deliver. To fulfil their commitments, the unscrupulous producers did the unthinkable and added diethylene-glycol , better known as antifreeze, to increase the sugar levels of their wines.
In 1985 an Austrian wine was tested and found to contain diethylene-glycol then it all went pear-shape for the Austria wine industry, yes other countries were doing it, but it was unthinkable that a country like Austria would do something like that. It was known as the Antifreeze Scandal, it destroyed Austrian Wine Industry in day!
In 2020 Austria’s Antifreeze Scandal is firmly in the past, today’s wine producers’ mantra in the main is high quality dry white wines. If enjoy dry wines like Chablis then Austrian wines made from the Grüner Veltliner grape are heaven sent. Enjoy
All the Wines below are from award winning wine producer Vom Haus. Search them out.
2019 Peaffe, Grüner Veltliner, Vom HAUS, Weinviertel, Austria, Alc. 12.5%, £12.95
Enjoy dry white wines? Then Vom Haus’s Grüner Veltliner will float your boat, it delivers grapefruit notes that are threaded with crisp acidic and finished with a black pepper lick.
Score: 7/10
2019 Zeisen Grüner Veltliner, Peaffe, Vom HAUS, Weinviertel, Austria, Alc. 13.0%, £14.21
Relish the taste of Chablis then Zeisen Grüner Veltliner will beat a similar tune on your tastebuds expect crisp acidity, fossil rock terroir and a shake of pepper
Score: 8/10
2019 Hund Grüner Veltliner, Peaffe, Vom HAUS, Weinviertel Reserve, Austria, Alc. 14.0%, £20.39
A quality dry white wine that demonstrates that the vineyard terroir makes a difference to the taste. Pour it into a large Riedel glass, sniff, sip and enjoy. One bottle won’t be enough.
Score: 9/10
Can I Eat It? 