(Manfred Klimek / Photo: Montage using traditional methods)
The award came from America, but it made waves in a village in the Weinviertel. Johannes Zillinger was named the world’s best Riesling by Wine Enthusiast for his 2021 Numen Riesling – 96 points, taking the top spot in a category usually dominated by the Mosel, Wachau or Rheingau. Velm-Götzendorf, on the other hand, does not feature on any international map of terroirs. No legendary vineyards, no spectacular altitudes, no centuries-old tales of Grand Crus. And this is precisely where the real story begins.
For this award is not a triumph of the soil, but one of skill. It does not mark proof of a great terroir, but the counter-evidence: that great wines can also be produced where the landscape remains eloquently silent – if people listen closely.
Johannes Zillinger works on loess, clay and limestone – that unspectacular mixture which characterises the south-eastern Weinviertel: soils long regarded as adequate, but not as inspiring. What was missing here was never the potential – but the will to stake everything on precision. Johannes Zillinger did exactly that. Radically organic since the 2000s, biodynamically certified, uncompromising on yield, patient in vinification. Two years in cask, time rather than technology, observation rather than intervention. His wines are not born of grand promises, but of daily decisions: to smooth nothing out, to hasten nothing, to explain nothing that the wine itself cannot convey better.
That it is a Riesling, of all things, that is receiving this international recognition is more than a touch of irony. Riesling is regarded as the grape variety of terroir, of cool climates, of geological finesse. Zillinger’s ‘Numen’ does not contradict this – it redefines it. The wine demonstrates that structure, length and inner tension need not stem solely from spectacular sites, but from hard work, patience and the ability to force nothing. This is not a wine of assertion, but one of consistency.
Just a few kilometres away, in Ebenthal, works Herbert Zillinger – no relation, but closely linked in spirit; and equally biodynamic. Whilst Johannes Zillinger opens up vast swathes of possibility, Herbert Zillinger charts his course within them with a clear head. His Grüner Veltliners – ‘Horizont’, ‘Hirschenrayn’ and ‘Kalkvogel’ – have for years been amongst the most precise interpretations of specific sites and vineyards in the country. They are not monumental wines, but monumental distillations: wines that shape an almost classical nobility from seemingly unspectacular plots. ‘Horizont’ strikes a balance between intensity and composure; ‘Hirschenrayn’ offers cool, structured depth; whilst ‘Kalkvogel’ represents the most rigorous, most mineral expression of this style. These are Veltliners that do not merely seek to impress, but to fully convince – with length, with inner tension, with wise authority.
Here, too, the principle applies: no grand terroir narrative, no exaggerated praise of the landscape. Instead, an uncompromising inward gaze. Herbert Zillinger works with minimal intervention, refrains from cosmetic adjustments, and allows the wines time and edge. The fact that even the simplest estate wine already possesses depth is no coincidence, but a deliberate approach. His great Veltliners are the result of years of reduction – to the essentials, not to the convenient.
The fact that two of Austria’s most meticulous wineries hail from a region that was once considered a footnote in wine history is no longer a coincidence. It is a pattern. The south-eastern Weinviertel demonstrates that terroir must be reinterpreted in the 21st century: not as a geological distinction, but as the interplay of soil, viticultural practices and time. Here, origin is not merely capitalised upon; here, it is earned.
The international success of Johannes Zillinger and the quiet, consistent and equally internationally recognised authority of Herbert Zillinger therefore signify more than just individual careers. They demonstrate that the definition of quality has shifted. Away from mere provenance, towards consistency. Away from expectation, towards precision. And perhaps that is the real point of this story: it does not elevate one region – it poses a question to all the others.