Barbara Ohlzelt Gemischter Satz Gut Gegen Nordwind

Barbara is based in the village of Zöbing, just north of the Kamptal’s regional centre of Langenlois. She farms 6-7ha in various small, choice locations within some of the region’s most famous ‘Erste Lagen’ vineyards. Her vineyards are typically planted very densely and are either inaccessible or unworkable by Tractors or other mechanical devices so the work is very largely by hand.

Kamptal is famous for producing some of Austria’s bigger, more robust wines and producers like Loimer, Brundlemayer and Hiedler are rightly famous for their broad, generously flavoured and full textured wines. Received wisdom says that these warm slopes above the river Kamp and the deep, predominantly Loess soils inevitably produce these rich wines. Barbera, very quietly but quite deliberately disproves the theory and is making some of the regions most clearly and cleanly delineated wines; precise, linear and excitingly intense wines that seem both scarily serious and madly joyful at the same time…. Like listening to Rik Mayall explain the meaning of life … on Jackanory !

They are deep, they are persistent, there’s a sense of everything being very deliberately … hmm… not ‘controlled’ but definitely properly ‘considered’. The acidity is always mouthwatering but stays resolutely the right side of sharp. Alcohols sit around 13.5 and there’s no shortage of flavour or ripeness and yet there’s never a hint of excess either. The wines are tense and precise but never in the slightest forbidding. You end up starting with ‘Lithe’ in the thesaurus when you run out of different ways of describing them.

Weingut Barbara Öhlzeltis certified Sustainable Austria since 2022. Sustainable Austria is a project undertaken by the Austrian Winegrowers’ Association. It assesses some 360 measures in nine sustainability fields of climate, materials, energy, soil, biodiversity, water, quality, social factors and economic factors. External auditing companies ensure independent adherence to the criteria. Each year, the requirements for earning certification become more stringent and new scientific findings are adopted.

Gruner Veltliner, Roter Veltliner, Pinot Blanc, Gruner Sylvaner

40% Gruner Veltliner, 40% Roter Veltliner, 10% Pinot Blanc, 10% Gruner Sylvaner.

Gut Gegen’ is a Gemischter Satz so the constituent varieties … in this case predominantly Gruner and Roter Veltliner, a little Pinot Blanc and a small addition of Gruner Sylvaner … are grown together in the same vineyard, harvested on the same day and co-fermented (natural yeast) in stainless steel. Selection is rigorous and very much helped by what is effectively a late green harvest when Barbara takes a pre harvest for the production of Verjus. Pressing is super gentle, never more than 1 bar and only whole grape pressing, never pre-mashed grapes. After initial fermentation the wine stays on fine lees for a few months before transfer to old Acacia barrels for a further short stay before bottling.

Here’s a wine that’s speaks very well for itself. A truly lovely and wonderfully inviting nose of dry honey, warm butter and maybe soft, ripe gooseberries gets things off to a flying start. It’s a Gemischter Satz so it’s about place at least as much as it is about fruit, and this particular wines strikes us as being about shape, texture and movement as much as it is about flavour too. The opening ‘baby plumpness’ gives way to a lovely gentle spiciness in the middle whilst a delicious, almost urgent acidity combines with an appetising touch of bitterness at the finish. Thinking about quite decent class white Burgundy seems helpful on the one hand and distracting on the other, the general ‘shape’ is close, but this is very much capable of standing on its own two feet and being judged for what it is without comparison. Its heart is dense and properly sleek with that exciting blend of fruitiness and stoniness that characterises so many genuinely ‘serious’ wines. Attractively undemanding yet at the same time properly smart. Lovely. A great starting point for your Barbara Őhlzelt journey.

Fresh, crushed peas with a suggestion of mint and some ricotta served on toast. Can’t see a nice herb stuffed wild Sea Bass being much of a problem here either!