Wagram

Wagram is a 2,800-ha/6,900-acre wine region of austria comprising just over 5% of the nation’s vineyards on the left bank of the Danube between kremstal and vienna. Known officially, if misleadingly, until 2007 as Donauland, and incorporating under that description today’s traisental as well as the right-bank vineyards of klosterneuburg, the Wagram derives its name from the wall-like embankment of loess that dominates this sector of the Danube and its viticulture. Grüner Veltliner accounts for roughly half of all vines and Bernard Ott—the one Wagram grower to have achieved Austrian star status—devotes his attention almost entirely to it. Yet, Roter Veltliner and gemischter satz vineyards, which make up just 3% and 5% respectively of Wagram vineyards, were dominant in large parts of Wagram until the late 20th century. Some strikingly successful wines, both white and red, have been made from them, as well as from other varieties, including Pinot Blanc and Riesling.