2022 Weingut Josef Fritz Roter Veltliner Reid Steinberg Privat Wagram

For those most in love with Austrian wine, Roter Veltliner is a secret handshake. Slightly more obscure than Grüner, it’s beloved by the handful of vintners stubborn enough to grow it for its rich tropical fruit, vibrant brightness, and exotic spice accents.

And no one in Austria makes better Roter Veltliner than Weingut Josef Fritz.

The 2022 Reid Steinberg Privat is their top bottling, a reserve wine from their most acclaimed single-vineyard. Not only was it the top-scoring Roter Veltliner in the prestigious pages of Falstaff—the Germanic equivalent of Wine Spectator—but its 96-point score won it the 2024 Wagram Cup as the top wine in the heralded region.

From a practical perspective, it’s easy to come up with reasons not to grow Roter Veltliner, which Trink magazine appropriately calls a “diva” of a grape. The grape likes warm sites and ripens late—a risk in chilly Austria—and is often plagued with poor pollination and low yields. 

One of the leading producers of the Wagram, the prestigious Austrian region most closely associated with the grape, Josef Fritz has a smattering of sites perfectly suited to growing Roter Veltliner, but none is better than the Reid Steinberg. The vineyard’s name literally translates to “stone house,” which is an apt description of the rockiness of the soil—perfect for taming the vigor of the grape.

In great years, the winery will produce a Privat bottling, which is the local term for a reserve that was historically kept just for family consumption. With a warm, easy growing season, 2022 was just about perfect for the grape, and today’s bottle is a star—an easy match with a kaleidoscope of food that packs truly impressive complexity.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Sweetness
• Acidity

• ABV 13.00%
• Enjoy right away
• Now – 2028
• % Other White Varietal
• Serving temperature – 48°
• Cork