Leo Alzinger is located in Unterloiben, just across the street from Knoll. Leo owns parcels in two of the great vineyards in this part of the river valley: Loibenberg and Steinertal. Loibenberg is a towering, terraced hillside, while the diminutive (5.5 hectare) Steinertal is hidden and maintains a cooler micro-climate. On the terraced vineyards of both sites, Riesling is cultivated on the higher, more primary rock rich parcels while Grüner Veltliner is cultivated on the lower, silty, loess based parcels.

Leo Alzinger Jr took over the family domaine in 2002 after returning from harvest in New Zealand. Prior to that he traveled to other regions to gain more experience and was fortunate to spend time with legendary winemaker Hans Günter Schwarz just prior to his retirement in 2002.  “The most significant experience came with my work in the Pfalz at Müller-Catoir in the vintage 2000. Hans Günter Schwarz revealed things in the cellar, small details that gave stronger impressions of vineyard and place. He taught me not to be afraid of skin contact, that good grapes will give good phenols, for example. How important work with the lees is and many other things.”

Harvest at Alzinger happens later than some of Leo’s neighbors in Unterloiben, something he attributes to old vines and the specific exposition of his parcels. The extra time on the vine doesn’t increase sugar levels, Leo says, but rather pushes physiological ripeness to greater balance. Alzinger crushes whole cluster with a short maceration, then allows the must to settle for 24 hours, dropping any green tannins out. Tasting the wines next to some of the other Wachau greats, it becomes apparent that elegance and pristine fruit is what Leo looks for in winemaking, rather than opulence. Alzinger’s wines are never forceful or assertive; they are instead amazingly sanguine and calmly transparent.

• Vineyard area: 11.5 hectares
• Top sites:
  • Loibenberg: South facing and one of the warmest sites in the Wachau, deep loess on the lower terraces, and stony, shallow, barren soils on the top terraces.
  • Steinertal: Very stony, shallow Gneiss soils, with some loess on the lower terraces.
  • Liebenberg: Amphibolite and mica-schist
• Soil types: Eroded primary rock, sandy soils with loam
• Grape varieties: 55% Grüner Veltliner, 40% Riesling, 5% Chardonnay

Wachau is a small but important wine district on the Danube River in northern Austria. One of Austria's most famous and respected wine regions, Wachau is known for its full-bodied, pepper-tinged Grüner Veltliner and rich, steely Riesling.

Wachau Grüner Veltliner is arguably the most iconic of all Austrian wine styles. Racy, aromatic and intense, these wines are marked by zesty citrus notes and a zing of white pepper. Neighboring Kremstal and Kamptal are the only other regions (In Austria or beyond) capable of producing Grüner Veltliner like this.

Wachau DAC

Despite (and because of) its prominence, Wachau is a latecomer to the Districtus Austriae Controllatus classification system. It became the 15th DAC in 2020, 17 years after Weinviertel was the first to be approved. The DAC system is meant to follow the French AOP system more closely in terms of recognizing quality in regionally typical wines.

As is the case with the most recently introduced DACs, there are three tiers of geographic classification. These are Ried (single vineyard), Ortswein (from a defined municipality) and Gebietswein (across Wachau). For each the permitted grape varieties are listed below.

• Ried (White only): Grüner Veltliner and Riesling
• Ortswein (White only): These plus Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Neuburger, Muskateller, Sauvignon Blanc, Traminer
• Gebietswein: The above plus (W) Frühroter Veltliner, Müller-Thurgau, Muskat Ottonel, (R) Roter Veltliner, Pinot Noir, Sankt Laurent, Zweigelt. Also the traditional field blend, Gemischter Satz (see Wiener Gemischter Satz)

While other DACs have introduced terms like Classic and Reserve to address other variables, Wachau will retain its existing unique terminology 9see below). Wines from Wachau which fall outside the DAC classification are most likely to be labeled with the Niederösterreich designation.

Wachau's unique wine designations

The terms Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd have been commonly found on bottles of white Wachau wine. This three-tier classification was developed by the region's producers as a way of communicating the style of their wines, beyond region and grape variety. 

• Steinfeder wines are the lightest: fresh and tangy, with a maximum of 11.5 percent ABV. The term means "stone feather", and is the name of a wispy, feather-like grass that grows on Wachau's stony terraces
• Federspiel wines are the middleweight category (11.5–12.5 percent ABV), with the racy, precise, elegance of a hunting falcon; federspiel means falconry (literally "feather game"). Smaragd wines are the richest and fullest-bodied, with a minimum of 12 percent ABV.
• Smaragd translates literally as "emerald" but refers here to a distinctive, emerald-green lizard which basks on the warmest of Wachau's sun-baked stone terraces.

Top-end Wachau Smaragd wines can improve in the cellar for 20 years or more. Sought-after examples of these wines include F.X. Pichler's "Unendlich" Riesling, and both the "Singerriedel" Riesling and "Honivogl" Grüner Veltliner from Franz Hirtzberger. Among the region's top Federspiel wines are Domane Wachau's Terrassen Riesling Federspiel and Emmerich Knoll's Grüner Veltliner Federspiel.

The Wachau region: geography and growing conditions

The viticultural region follows the Danube for roughly 35 kilometers (20 miles) until Krems-an-der-Donau, the fifth-largest city in Lower Austria. This is the commercial hub for Wachau and its neighboring districts Kremstal and Kamptal.

Most Wachau vineyards are located on steep (often terraced) hillsides above the Danube – a naturally sunny location where warm summer temperatures are stabilized slightly by the river below. The most flavorful Wachau wines come from vineyards perched on sun-drenched, south-facing terraces.

Wachau's steep, sweeping, vineyard-lined riverbanks could easily be mistaken for those of Germany's Mosel, even if the wines are distinct. Classic Wachau Rieslings taste richer, riper and more tropical than their counterparts from the cooler, wetter Mosel. They have much more in common with the richest Rieslings of Alsaçe and Pfalz.

The climate in Wachau, and indeed all of northern Austria, is influenced by two dramatically different climatological zones: the chilly Eastern Alps to the west, and the warm Pannonian Plain that dominates Hungary to the east. Overall, the Austrian climate is decidedly continental, with warm summers and cold winters, but along the banks of the Danube a more moderate mesoclimate prevails.

Soil types play an important role in Wachau vineyards. They are composed largely of sand, gravel and loess, carried downstream by the Danube over many millennia. Also present is a special kind of gneiss known as gföhler, which is said to bring a certain minerality to Wachau wines.

Riesling performs best in the weathered, granitic soils on the steeper terraces. Grüner Veltliner prefers the sandier loess carried by prevailing winds over time to eastern hillsides.

History

Viticulture in Wachau is thought to have been introduced by Celtic tribes, and continued in the 1st Century B.C. by Romans. The most important influence, however, came from Bavarian and Salzburger monks. They built the steep, terraced vineyards along the riverside in the Middle Ages.