Austrian Riesling shines

Did you know that Riesling is planted on only 4.1% of Austria's vineyards (1,850 ha)? I probably did know that once upon a time, but I had forgotten just how little Riesling there is in Austria compared with the area dedicated to Grüner Veltliner (29.4%), although it has increased from 3.4% in 1999. Riesling hotspots are the Wachau (16.4% of the Wachau vineyard area is Riesling), Kremstal (10.3%) and Kamptal (9.4%), and these are unsurprisingly the areas best represented in my tasting notes below.

(NB All the figures quoted here are from the 2009 viticultural survey, the most recent of...