Zweigelt

Zweigelt is Austria's most planted red grape, created in 1922 by Fritz Zweigelt at the research station in Klosterneuburg by crossing Blaufränkisch with St. Laurent.

It was bred for reliability and delivers it: the vine is winter-hardy, ripens earlier than Blaufränkisch, crops generously and resists disease well. Those are unglamorous virtues, and they are why it spread across Austria so quickly after the Second World War.

The wine is medium-bodied and immediately appealing, with sour cherry, raspberry and blackberry, soft tannins, fresh acidity and a characteristic peppery, faintly bitter note on the finish. Most of it is made unoaked for early drinking, and it is Austria's everyday red — served cool, drunk young, and widely poured by the glass.

There are more serious versions from Burgenland, aged in oak and made from lower-yielding vines, which have more structure and can age for a decade, though the grape's charm is not really in its capacity to age.

It is also a component of Austrian red blends alongside Blaufränkisch and Bordeaux varieties.

The breeder's name is a complication the Austrian industry has discussed openly: Fritz Zweigelt was a committed member of the Nazi party, and there have been periodic proposals to rename the grape Rotburger, the alternative name it was given at the time. Neither name has fully displaced the other.

It is also grown in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Canada.