Austria’s colors are red and white. Those are the colors of the national flag and the uniforms of the country’s football team, too. You can see them clearly on the bottles of many Austrian wines because a seal atop the bottle continues the red and white theme.

Blessings and Curses

Red and white. That’s Austria and its wines. But what do people think of when they think about Austrian wines? Not the red. Just the white. Riesling, of course, and increasingly Gruner Veltliner. Delicious wines that are Austria’s vinous ambassadors to the world.

That’s the blessing and the curse of  “signature” grape varieties. They help define a region or country in a crowded wine market, but they also make it difficult for any other type or style of wine to break out. This is the wine variation of the economic principle of the “Dutch Disease,” which holds that, under some circumstances, great success in any one sector of the economy creates barriers to success elsewhere. Austrian red wines are victims of the Gruner Veltliner’s curse.

Cool Reds

The Austrian Wine organization aims to lift the curse by giving Austrian red wines a strong identity of their own. The theme is “chillable reds,” which is a category of wines that I see mentioned more and more (today’s email includes a note from California’s Ridge Vineyard is promoting its varietal Valdiguie as a “chillable red”).

You can chill any red wine, I suppose, and it is conventional wisdom among wine geeks that most red wines are served too warm (and most white wines too cold). But what makes a red wine particularly suitable to this category? Think light body, low alcohol, fruity, juicy, refreshing. What’s not to like?

Sue and I enjoyed many red wines of this type when we lived in Prague for a couple of summers (back in my professor days). The red wines (from Slovakia, Czechia, and Austria as I recall) were great with a bit of a chill at the end of a warm day.

Austrian’s “chillable red” category is quite diverse, beginning with wines made from the Zweigelt grape variety (which accounts for 45 percent of red vineyard plantings).  Other winegrapes to look for include Sankt Laurent, Blaufrankisch (a.k.a. Lemberger here in Washington state), Pinot Noir, and Blau Portugieser. The wines differ in many respects, but share a common thread of light body and good acidity. You would not be a fool to spend the rest of the summer exploring these wines and others like them.

Austrian Wine sent us a couple of wines to sample and they showed the diversity of this category very well. The Sankt Laurent from Christina Wines was light and fresh, with sour cherry and cranberry flavors. Reminded me a bit of Beaujolais, which makes sense because of whole-berry fermentation. A fun wine and only 11% abv.

The second wine was a Pinot Noir “Langenlois” from Weingut Jurtschitsch. Pinot Noir is familiar territory, so it was interesting to see how this wine captured the essence of its cool climate terroir. Here in Washington state this is the type of wine we enjoy chilled down a bit with grilled sockeye salmon because it has structure but without weight. There are lots of situations where that’s just what  we are looking for. I have to admit that the “chillable red” category includes some “swimming pool” wines, but they aren’t all so simple.

The Big Chill?

What does chilling do to red wine? I suppose it depends on the wine. I remember tasting one very popular wine with lots of tannins and residual sugar. I needed to chill it way down just to drink it. But with nice wines like those we tasted from Austria I most appreciate how chilling affects the texture and reinforces the juicy appeal.

What does chilling do for Austrian red wines in terms of their market appeal? I think the Austrian producers hope it will help their wines carve out a distinct identity and guide buyers interested in this style of wine to the part of the wine wall where the red and white bottle tops can be found.