Weingut Kurt Angerer

Lengenfeld, Kamptal

The Angerer’s have been vignerons in Austria’s Kamptal region for over 150 years. Having learnt his trade from his father Franz, Kurt Angerer went out to work for other producers to gain experience away from the family fold. When it came time to think about his own winery he had his heart set on….wait for it….Australia. Thankfully for Austria he decided to stay and in 1996 he started producing his own wines out of the family winery in Lengenfeld in the Kamptal.

Kurt started by specialising in Grüner Veltliner and is now internationally recognised as one of the Kamptal’s best producers of that variety. Kurt produces a diverse range of wines with both traditional Austrian and international white and red varieties, but for me his range of transparently terroir driven Grüners from the three predominant soil types of the region is the most interesting – ‘Spies’ (granite), ‘Loam’ (loess) and ‘Eichenstaude’ (red gravel).

I suspect Kurt’s early desire to emigrate to Australia might have been driven by a passion for making red wine in a country largely suited to white varieties. That said his reds are some of the best we have tried from Austria – deeply coloured, plushly fruited with minerality and fine but keen tannin structures.

Most wines have some influence from the use of very large French oak casks of varying age and use of sulphur is on the decline.

Today Kurt has 14 hectares in ownership and manages another 19 hectares under lease. The vineyards are worked in a sustainable fashion in order to best express the terroir of each site and soil type with a move to organic management being trialled. Kurt prefers to spend his time in the vineyards and the winery and is assisted in sales and marketing and administration by his partner Simone.