Hi-Time's Top Austrian Wines of 2024
JAMES SUCKLING 97 POINTS - "I love the way that ripe and very cool elements are effortlessly married in this magnificent Austrian chardonnay. Very graceful texture on the mouth-filling, concentrated and creamy palate. Then it turns decisively in a profoundly mineral direction with a noble austerity and saltiness. From organically grown grapes. Drinkable now, but best from 2025."
WINE ADVOCATE 94 POINTS - "The 2020 Tiglat is a pure, intense and mineral Chardonnay that was aged in 225- and 500-liter barrels for 18 months, which adds some charm and openness. On the palate, this is a pure and refined yet intense and full-bodied wine with remarkable finesse and elegance. The finish is warm but also pure, fresh, saline, energetic and very long. The power (13.5% stated alcohol) is palatable yet not numbing. This is a dense, elegant, refined and balanced Chardonnay with stimulating bitters on the tight and grippy finish. This is excellent and rather a wine from Apetlon than from Chablis. Diam cork. Tasted in July 2023."
At present, Heinz Velich offers only one botrytis wine, the Seewinkel 2017 Beerenauslese SW, although he has meanwhile dispensed with the Seewinkel designation, since he doesn't follow the DAC system. The term has become meaningless anyway and no longer gives a name only to the communes of Apetlon, Illmitz and Podersdorf, but to the whole eastern shore of Lake Neusiedl. In any case, Velich now dispenses with pertinent designations, such as the Burgenland origin. The disputes with the authorities about the typicality of his wines have long since gone against his grain, so that he is now content to produce only "wine from Austria"—i.e., without any more precise indication of geographical origin. In any case, people buy a Velich because it is a Velich, and they buy Velich's Tiglat or Darscho because there are hardly any better Chardonnays in Austria. Currently, the 2020s are on the price list, wines from another very hot and dry year. Nevertheless, Velich's white wines show the usual energy and excitement; and of course, they continue to be highlights of the wine-growing region of Burgenland and, in particular, of its southernmost part, which was once exclusively called Seewinkel because the lake forms a right angle here and is further characterized by lacken (very small, shallow salt lakes).
Published: Aug 24, 2023
JAMES SUCKLING 97 POINTS - "I love the way that ripe and very cool elements are effortlessly married in this magnificent Austrian chardonnay. Very graceful texture on the mouth-filling, concentrated and creamy palate. Then it turns decisively in a profoundly mineral direction with a noble austerity and saltiness. From organically grown grapes. Drinkable now, but best from 2025."
WINE ADVOCATE 94 POINTS - "The 2020 Tiglat is a pure, intense and mineral Chardonnay that was aged in 225- and 500-liter barrels for 18 months, which adds some charm and openness. On the palate, this is a pure and refined yet intense and full-bodied wine with remarkable finesse and elegance. The finish is warm but also pure, fresh, saline, energetic and very long. The power (13.5% stated alcohol) is palatable yet not numbing. This is a dense, elegant, refined and balanced Chardonnay with stimulating bitters on the tight and grippy finish. This is excellent and rather a wine from Apetlon than from Chablis. Diam cork. Tasted in July 2023."
At present, Heinz Velich offers only one botrytis wine, the Seewinkel 2017 Beerenauslese SW, although he has meanwhile dispensed with the Seewinkel designation, since he doesn't follow the DAC system. The term has become meaningless anyway and no longer gives a name only to the communes of Apetlon, Illmitz and Podersdorf, but to the whole eastern shore of Lake Neusiedl. In any case, Velich now dispenses with pertinent designations, such as the Burgenland origin. The disputes with the authorities about the typicality of his wines have long since gone against his grain, so that he is now content to produce only "wine from Austria"—i.e., without any more precise indication of geographical origin. In any case, people buy a Velich because it is a Velich, and they buy Velich's Tiglat or Darscho because there are hardly any better Chardonnays in Austria. Currently, the 2020s are on the price list, wines from another very hot and dry year. Nevertheless, Velich's white wines show the usual energy and excitement; and of course, they continue to be highlights of the wine-growing region of Burgenland and, in particular, of its southernmost part, which was once exclusively called Seewinkel because the lake forms a right angle here and is further characterized by lacken (very small, shallow salt lakes).
Published: Aug 24, 2023
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