Austrian Grape Varieties White
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Scheurebe
From the Austrian Wine Marketing Board’s website: “Scheurebe is a crossing of Riesling and Bukettraube.” If you go down this rabbit hole, Bukettraube is Vitis Vinifera and goes by the synonyms: Bouquet Blanc, Bouquettraube, Sylvaner Musqué.” If Scheu's goal was to create a more aromatic and frost-resistant version of Silvaner, crossing Riesling with Sylvaner Musqué makes a lot of sense. There are 302.55 hectares planted in Austria, found mainly in Burgenland and Steiermark. Some of Austira’s best-known Scheurebe wines are sweet and botrytized TBAs from Lake Neusiedl.
Sauvignon Blanc
Sauvignon Blanc
Things get especially interesting for German-speaking Sauvignon Blanc in Austria’s Steiermark, where over half of the country’s 1,691 hectares are grown, and climate, soil, and variety assemble to create one of Sauvignon Blanc’s greatest terroirs anywhere in the world. Tasting Südsteiermark Sauvignon Blanc pushed to the limits of reduction at Weingut Tement, or the “non-fruit” wines of Weingut Hannes Sabathi will convince any non-believer that Sauvignon Blanc is capable of many more notches beyond grapefruit, passionfruit, and fresh cut grass. Muskat-Sylvaner is an old synonym for Sauvignon Blanc in this region, strange in that it is related to neither Sylvaner nor Muskat. It is no longer permitted; I've only seen it on old wines. The thing to do is visit Südsteiermark in summer, sit in the shade of the Buschenschank with some cold cuts, bread, and quark with chives, consume the entirety of a bottle, nap in the grass, and repeat.
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