Wagram region | Château Monty

Wagram is a wine region in Lower Austria (Niederösterreich) in Austria. It stretches 37 miles (60km) north-west of Vienna toward St Pölten. Until 2007 Wagram was known somewhat misleadingly as Donauland (‘Danubeland’). Wagram’s geologic features (see below) coupled with consistent weather and climatic patterns provide the prerequisites for producing full-bodied wines rich in aroma and flavour. Wagram is better known for its Grüner Veltliner than its Riesling, but the latter appears to be underestimated.

Vineyard area: 2016 2,451 ha. | 2018 2,720 hectares of vines (Wines of Austria). | 2020 2,439 ha.

Main grape varieties: Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Roter Veltliner.

Terroir: Wagram has two distinct zones, on both the north and south banks of the Danube (Donau). The northern, actual Wagram part, is a massif terrain that stretches 30km along the northern bank of the Danube as far as Kamptal; and the areas towards the south, encompasses the quaint villages around the Tullnerfeld region as well as the historic wine town of Klosterneuburg, just outside Vienna. The extensive geological features coupled with consistent weather and climatic patterns offer the prerequisites for producing full-bodied wines rich in aroma and flavour. Layers of loess formed in the Ice Age cover the substrate of marine deposits and river gravels (the name Wagram comes from ‘Wogenrain’ meaning ‘shore’) and shape the landscape. Grüner Veltliner in particular benefits from this, yielding hearty, spicy wines with substance.

“Wagram” describes a mighty plateau in the landscape which stretches along the left bank of the river Danube for over 30km. This section comprises of approximately 2,451 hectares of vineyards. The remaining vineyard area consists of the vineyards around Klosterneuburg, south of the Danube. Its uniform geological and climatic characteristics make the Wagram a model wine growing region. The soils – a deep layer of loess piled up at the shore of a prehis- toric sea forms a unique landscape – are high in fossils and mine- rals. It demonstrably lends the wines their very individual typicity. The influence of the Pannonian climate with very warm sunny days alternates with cool nights. This combination creates wines with a pronounced fruity, elegant and creamy texture. This “terroir” is perfectly mirrored in the main grape variety of the region, the Grü- ner Veltliner. The autochthon Roter Veltliner also thrives excellently under these conditions

Geology: Loess is dominant north of the Danube and almost completely covers the substratum consisting of crystallinerocks, silty-clayey marine sediments of the Molasse Basin and glacial terrace gravels. The yellowish flour-like and consistently calcareous–dolomitic rock dust is sometimes up to several metres in thickness here. In the northern, more elevated and hilly part of the wine growing area, the vineyards are located upon sandy-gravel soils that belong to the so-called Hollabrunn-Mistelbach Formation. This marks an earlier course of the Danube, about 10 million years old. In many cases these gravels bear a topsoil of clay.

South of the Danube the vineyards are sited on the varied rocks of the Molasse Basin until towards the east the major location of Klosterneuburg is encountered. The vineyards here lie on diverse grades of calcareous flysch rocks. Characteristic and often repeating sequences of sand, silt, claystone and marl are referred to as flysch, which formed from submarine mudslides that flowed into the deep waters of the primordial Tethys Ocean. The north-east facing underslopes are coated by fine-grained, more or less calcareous loams.

Wine styles: Grüner Veltliner is the flagship grape variety here. The area also produces some of the most opulent, full-bodied red wines in Niederösterreich, especially from Zweigelt and Pinot Noir. The indigenous speciality Roter Veltliner provides long lasting wines. Ice wine is also made in the Wagram region.

Wineries

Certified Biodynamic: Domaine Ott. | Fritz Salomon Gut Oberstockstall. | Judith Beck. | Weinberghof Fritsch. | Weingut Wimmer-Czerny.

No certification: Stift Klosterneuburg.

Bibliography

Oz Clarke, Oz Clarke Wine A-Z (Pavilion, 2015), p.180.

Wines of Austria.