Austria’s frost-affected 2012 vintage promises good-quality wines across the board – but supplies of the country’s flagship Gruner Veltliner are much reduced.

According to the Austrian Wine Marketing Board (AWMB), the harvest produced 2.15 million hectolitres of wine, well below the long-term average, thanks to a freak late frost in May.

This caused heavy damage in the Pulkautal (Weinviertel) area, as well as parts of Kamptal and Kremstal, inflicting significant harvest losses on Grüner Veltliner in particular.

However, the AWMB said beautiful dry weather at the end of the growing season and throughout the main harvest period ensured the overall quality for red and white wines was very high.

“For the third time in four years – specifically 2012, 2011 and 2009 – the yields in all red wine areas and of all red varieties were of outstanding quality,” the board said.

Red wines were more compact and vigorous than in 2011, but there was no question about their ageability.

Among the whites, Grüner Veltliner was already showing very good to excellent results, but some Rieslings were still a little reserved as the winter drew to a close.