Twenty five years ago, the wine world was a very different place. For one thing, almost all the wine sold in Ireland came from Europe. The per capita consumption here was about three litres per year (as opposed to eighteen litres nowadays) and most of that consisted of Liebfraumilch and Sherry!
That same year there were two wine scandals, one Italian and one Austrian, but only one of them rocked the wine world. The one that did was of Austrian origin.
Late in 1985, news broke that some Austrian wine producers were ‘adulterating’ their wines with the chemical diethylene glycol. This was done in order to sweeten the wines artificially. This practice was completely illegal but it’s worth noting that nobody died, and, in fact, I believe that nobody even became sick as a result. The news broke late in 1985, too late to have any effect on export sales of that year but the following year, exports fell by 90%! The Austrian wine industry was given a serious body blow.
Also, in 1985, there was another wine scandal, this time in Italy. This too, involved adulterating the wine but in a much more serious way. Twenty two people died but as the wine involved was not exported, it was only news in Italy. All twenty two were Italians. It was a mere blip for the Italian wine industry which has gone from strength to strength since.
Austria, however, has had to radically restructure the wine industry and, I’m delighted to say, it has really paid off.
Prior to the 1985 scandal, Austria concentrated on producing cheap and cheerful, semi-sweet wine for glugging. Does the name ‘Hirondelle’ ring any bells with anyone? Now, we are seeing some really top class, characterful and complex wines on our shop shelves with the tag of ‘Austria’ on the label.
However, I do have a complaint and that is that there are all too few of the wines available in Ireland. What we have are good but I’d like more of them. For example the wines of Weingut (wine estate) Allram and those of the renowned Willi Brundlmayer are missing. I should say that the latter’s wines were brought in up to a few years ago by Liam Cabot and there may be a few bottles left if you check his website (www.cabotandco.ie).
Also worth noting are the wines of Birgit Eichinger and Schloss Gobelsberg both available through The Wicklow Wine Company which distributes them to various good wine shops in the Dublin area. Both of these estates make a number of excellent dry whites from various grape varieties but it’s the duo of Riesling and Gruner Veltliner (Austria’s own) that will restore your faith in Austrian wine.
Lovely Gruner Veltliner (rich and exotic) is also available in The Corkscrew wine shop on Chatham st, off Grafton st, from the producer Hirsch which is definitely worth checking out.
Another source of lovely Gruners and Rieslings is Searson’s wine shop on Monkstown Cresent who were one of the first to support Austrian wines after the scandal. The shop sells the wines of Domane Wachau. This producer is from the Wachau which is considered to be the best region for dry white wines.

Remember: The wine world has a lot more to offer that overoaked, mass-produced chilean chardonnay. Explore!