This year's red wine awards were presented by Falstaff at the Red Wine Gala in the elegant atmosphere of the Vienna Hofburg. These three wineries were honored for their 2023 vintage.

1ST FALSTAFF WINNER: WINERY KRUTZLER

Blaufränkisch Perwolff 2023

The Blaufränkisch Perwolff is one of Austria's iconic red wines. The first Perwolff was presented at the beginning of the 1990s. The Blaufränkisch, which owes its name to a Carolingian settlement in what is now Deutsch Schützen, the Krutzlers' home town, was initially given a touch of Cabernet Sauvignon, and its extraordinary quality has quickly earned it cult status. To this day, Reinhold Krutzler uses only the very best Blaufränkisch grapes for this wine, the majority of which are from higher altitudes where the proportion of green slate is particularly high.

But the Perwolff is not the only highlight the winery has to offer. Even if the quantities produced are normally small, the winery's single-varietal Merlot is one of the best in the country. The product range is rounded off with other Blaufränkisch wines that impressively showcase the terroir of the Eisenberg, the "Alter Weingarten" cuvée, and an outstanding Welschriesling, which is matured in used barriques. The special geology, which the Eisenberg region was named after a very long time ago and again a few years ago, is noticeable in the taste profile of the wines, because the iron-rich clay soils with slate inclusions provides the wines with elegance, finesse and a pronounced minerality. This ensures an immense flow of drinking.

Reinhold Krutzler relies less on individual sites and more on the Illyrian climate and the different soil formations, as the proportions of iron and slate are not the same everywhere. For him, things simply have to be coherent, not merely driven by consumer needs or trends, but always truthful—an excellent approach that has earned him very special awards for his wines over the years.

2ND FALSTAFF WINNER: ROSI SCHUSTER WINERY

Blaufränkisch Müllendorf Ried Santen 2023

After a few silent years in Austria, the traditional winery Rosi Schuster, which was among the red wine elite for many years with cuvées such as "C.M.B." and other wines and was never missing on any wine list, is now back in full force. Hannes Schuster, Rosi's son, had taken a different path, which initially brought him success abroad and among insiders. It therefore feels all the more a gratifying that his path is now also gaining increasing recognition in Austria. He cleared international varieties to create ideal sites for Blaufränkisch in particular, but also for St. Laurent, Furmint and Grüner Veltliner, and to develop site-specific profiles.

The winery has also been certified organic since 2011. Spontaneous fermentation, less use of wood and long contact with the yeast make up his formula for success in the cellar. Healthy and ripe grapes, which are monitored by his mother, are much more important to him. In addition to his various local wines, which are spread across a total of six Burgenland villages, he now also displays the full potential of his vineyards, which are located in the vicinity of St. Margarethen, Zagersdorf and Müllendorf. What is certain is that Hannes Schuster's wines should once again be on every good wine list in the country, permanently.

The Blaufränkisch Müllendorf Ried Santen 2023 is just one of several wines from the Rosi Schuster winery that attracted great attention at this year's Falstaff wine awards, as two other Blaufränkisch wines from the St. Margarethen vineyards Hinkenthal and Lamer also made it into the finals. The St. Laurent from the Repistye vineyard in Zagersdorf was once again among the finalists in its grape variety group. Hannes Schuster brings out the special features of his vineyards in an authentic way, gives his wines time to develop in order to bring perfect drinking pleasure to every glass filled with them, and enables them to convey timeless elegance.

3RD FALSTAFF WINNER: WINERY MORIC

Blaufränkisch Lutzmannsburg Old Vines 2023

Roland Velich aims to give the Blaufränkisch variety a new, independent profile that makes it possible to place this typical Austrian grape variety in the same league as the world's greatest red wines. Velich considers conditions for making great red wines in Burgenland similarly excellent as in Burgundy or the northern Rhône Valley. Velich is concerned with originals, not copies. He relies entirely on the strengths of Burgenland and tries to exploit the full potential of the Blaufränkisch variety and the different soils.

He found the right plots of land for his concept in central Burgenland. In Neckenmarkt and Lutzmannsburg, he discovered ancient vineyards, some of which are over a hundred years old and are planted at a high density of up to 8,000 vines per hectare. The small-berry grapes, which are the foundation for the Moric line, grow here in ideal exposure conditions and on the most suitable terroir. The result is a fine, mineral wine from Lutzmannsburg, characterized by floral nuances.

Over the past few years, the old Blaufränkisch parcels in Lutzmannsburg have increasingly come to the forefront, where Roland Velich has made a long-cherished dream of his come true, starting with the 2019 vintage. He has bottled several different terroirs individually, thanks to which he can now convey the diversity and nuances of Blaufränkisch even more precisely. As a synthesis of the best grapes, the "Old Vines" from Lutzmannsburg are at the top of the product range. This time, the the 2023 vintage, full of finesse, achieved a sensational 99 points, with an equal points score as the two wines that came first in the competition, closely followed by the three single-vineyard wines, which were awarded 98 points by the jury.