Eruption Wines: Steiermark's Extinct Volcanoes, Bottled

I have always been a sucker for volcanoes. What they are, how the land settles around them, and above all what they leave in the soil. I have jars of the stuff at home, scooped up over the last decade from Etna and Vesuvio and a few others, lined up like trophies. So, when the trip list said Vulkanland, Steiermark's volcano country, I was already sold. The name alone tells you what shaped this place, and you feel it the moment you arrive. It is the largest of Steiermark's three regions by total area, second by plantings, with 1,657 hectares under vine, and it sits on the eastern edge of the state.

I could barely sit still on the bus. Austria had been near the top of my must-visit list for years, and here I was heading in to judge Sauvignon Blanc again with Concours Mondial in April 2024. A moment I will never forget. Let me walk you through this shape-shifting region, its winemakers, and the wines that are still rattling around my head, the Krispel B1 above all, where the B stands for basalt. Keep reading, I will get to it.

A region born from fire

Vulkanland Steiermark sits in the southeastern corner of Austria, forever overshadowed by louder names like the Wachau or Burgenland. That is a mistake. This is a place where ancient geology and restless winemaking meet, where vines root into the fertile leftovers of extinct volcanoes and turn out wines of real character and complexity. Nothing I had seen quite prepared me for it. And at the top of the quality tree sits a badge you will not find anywhere else, the Eruption wine, a mark that signals not just quality but a direct line back to the region's fiery past.

Nine districts on the bones of volcanoes

Vulkanland breaks into nine viticultural districts, each with its own rock, altitude and signature grapes, and almost everyone named for an extinct volcano or the medieval castle that crowns it. Sauvignon Blanc leads in all nine:

• Oststeiermark, 325 hectares. Sauvignon Blanc and Weissburgunder, on weathered basalt and tuff, sedimentary soils, sand and silty clay, even a little schist. Vines climb to 570 metres on the slopes of the subalpine Ringkogel.
• Riegersburg, 298 hectares. Sauvignon Blanc and Weissburgunder, on sandy gravel with alluvial deposits, silt, clay and weathered tuff. The eleventh-century Riegersburg castle looms over the whole district.
• Gleichenberg, 90 hectares. Sauvignon Blanc and Morillon, on limestone-free weathered volcanic rock and mixed sedimentary soils. Small vineyards cluster around the microclimates of the almost 600-metre Gleichenberger Kogel, an extinct volcano millions of years old, at 300 to 400 metres.
• Kapfenstein, 73 hectares. Sauvignon Blanc and Weissburgunder, on weathered volcanic rock laced with olivine, a plutonic rock straight from magma. The high plateau of the extinct Kapfenstein volcano dominates, topped by its eleventh-century castle, with the steep little cone of the Kuruzzenkogel nearby.
• Sankt Anna, 140 hectares. Sauvignon Blanc and Morillon, on sedimentary, partly calcareous and weathered volcanic soils. The Stradener Kogel, one of the region's largest extinct volcanoes, shields the vines from the cool Alpine north; plantings sit at 300 to 390 metres.
• Straden, 166 hectares. Sauvignon Blanc and Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris), on deep, partly calcareous sedimentary soils and weathered volcanic rock. The vineyards scatter across the gentle foothills of the extinct Stradener Kogel, at 280 to 440 metres, on steep slopes and high plateaus.
• Sankt Peter, 125 hectares. Sauvignon Blanc and Weissburgunder, on sedimentary, partly calcareous soils. Rolling hills and valleys, with hilly to steep vineyards threaded between orchards, forests and fields.
• Tieschen, 97 hectares. Sauvignon Blanc and the whole Pinot family, on weathered volcanic rock and sedimentary gravel, sand and clay. The vineyards sit on the foothills of extinct volcanoes, facing the village of Tieschen.
• Klöch, 179 hectares. Sauvignon Blanc and Traminer, on weathered volcanic rock, basalt above all. The vines gather around the extinct Klöchberg volcano.

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1. Neumeister Ried Moarfeitl Sauvignon Blanc 2017, the anchor of the flight, 93/100
2. Krispel Ort Straden Sauvignon Blanc, 92/100
3. Winkler-Hermaden Kapfenstein Sauvignon Blanc, 92/100
4. Sankt Peter Sauvignon Blanc, 89/100
5. Sankt Anna Sauvignon Blanc, 91/100

A terroir forged by volcanoes

Vulkanland carries the greatest variety of soils in all Steiermark, formed millions of years ago in intense volcanic activity and ranging from calcareous to almost lime-free, threaded with sand, clay, gravel and volcanic debris. The rolling hills and steep volcanic foothills are studded with basalt and tuff, and those rocks are rich in the iron and magnesium that keep vines healthy and stamp the fruit with a flinty, smoky note. It is the mineral backbone you taste in every serious bottle here.

The climate pulls its weight too. Vulkanland sits where the Pannonian Plain meets the Styrian hills, so warm days give way to cool nights, the perfect rhythm for slow, even ripening. Warm easterly winds build sugar in the grapes; cool Alpine breezes hold the acidity taut. The result is fruit that ripens fully without ever going flabby.

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1. Basalt
2. Tuff
3. Calcareous
4. Sandy clay

The grapes: overwhelmingly white

Vulkanland is white wine country, 84 percent of the vineyard, with just 258 hectares given to red. The whites, Welschriesling, Weissburgunder, Sauvignon Blanc and the indigenous Gelber Muskateller, all share that Vulkanland signature: vibrant acidity, pronounced aromatics and a mineral spine. The reds, led by Zweigelt, the catch-all Sonstige Rot and Blauer Wildbacher, bring depth and a smoky undertow straight from the volcanic ground. The full ranking, from the 2024 vintage:

• Welschriesling, 305 hectares, 18 percent
• Weissburgunder, 292 hectares, 18 percent
• Sauvignon Blanc, 188 hectares, 11 percent
• Muskateller, 143 hectares, 8.7 percent
• Zweigelt, 141 hectares, 8.5 percent
• Morillon (Chardonnay), 114 hectares, 6.9 percent
• Sonstige Rot (other reds), 41 hectares, 2.5 percent
• Traminer, 38 hectares, 2.3 percent
• Blauer Wildbacher, 24 hectares, 1.5 percent

Three of them are worth singling out. Sauvignon Blanc, often called the King of Vulkanland, thrives in the cool climate and swings from citrus and green apple to exotic passion fruit and gooseberry. Morillon, as the locals call Chardonnay, is usually vinified for freshness and minerality, all stone fruit, citrus and a flinty finish. And Traminer earns its keep on aroma alone: a rich floral bouquet of lychee, rose petal and spice, with the volcanic soils layering in extra depth.

Eruption Wines, a classification born from passion

It was at an overview tasting at Weingut Krispel that I first spotted the words Eruption Winzer on a label, something I had never come across. Even deep into a WSET Diploma, moments like that remind you how much there is left to learn, humbling and thrilling at once. So, I asked what it meant.

The answer, more or less: nine winemakers, nine characters, nine styles, one shared passion for wine. Nine growers from Vulkanland who banded together into a tight community, wildly different in temperament and in the glass, united by their love of wine and their push for a single-vineyard quality standard. That is Eruption Winzer.

In June 2021 those nine formally registered their own vineyard classification under private law, and had it assessed, for the first time in Austria, by an outside certification body, the respected LACON GmbH. The vineyards were sorted into two tiers, Erste Lage (premier cru) and Große Lage (grand cru), a way to spotlight what the region's volcanic soils can really do. The name Eruption was chosen to capture both the explosive flavour and the fiery origin. To qualify, the grapes must come only from volcanic-soil vineyards, and the winemaking runs a strict gauntlet: lower yields, mandatory hand-harvesting and extended ageing. The payoff is wines that speak clearly of their terroir and age with grace.

How Styria's DAC pyramid works

Since the 2018 vintage, a system of origin (DAC) has given Styrian wine clear rules and sharpened each region's identity. It climbs like a pyramid:

• Steiermark Wein. Easy drinking, everyday pleasure.
• Gebietswein DAC. Clear varietal typicity with a regional accent.
• Ortswein DAC. The essence of a single village in the glass.
• Riedenwein DAC. An outstanding single vineyard with the potential to rise to Erste or Große Lage.
• Erste Lage (premier cru). A wine with an independent character and ideal conditions of vineyard, mesoclimate and grower. Vulkanland's Erste Lage sites include Ried Stradener Rosenberg, Ried Neusetzberg and Ried Kaargebirge.
• Große Lage (grand cru). The most expressive wines, with the greatest depth and the longest cellar life. Vulkanland's Große Lage is Ried Hochstrandl.

Organic roots and cellar craft

Vulkanland's growers take sustainability seriously, with many vineyards farmed organically or biodynamically, which they believe lets the terroir speak louder. No synthetic shortcuts, just natural processes to keep the vines and soil in balance, and healthier fruit for it. In the cellar, tradition meets restraint. Whites are usually gently pressed and fermented in stainless steel to keep the fruit bright, with some ageing in large, neutral oak for extra complexity. Reds get longer maceration for colour and tannin, then time in small oak, always measured so the wood never buries the volcanic character underneath.

What an Eruption wine tastes like

Eruption wines earn their name. Intense, explosive flavour and serious complexity: a nose of stone fruit, citrus and florals over a distinct minerality, then a full-bodied, tightly structured palate that balances ripe fruit against vibrant acidity and finishes long on smoke, flint and spice. What truly sets them apart is how completely they capture Vulkanland, that unmistakable volcanic minerality and earthy undertow. Many will keep developing in bottle for a decade or more, gaining layer on layer.

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1. Weingut Krispel B1, the wine that ages in basalt, 96/100
2. At Weingut Krispel, April 2024
3. Wines resting inside their basalt sarcophagus

Krispel's B1, the wine out of stone

This was a once-in-a-lifetime pour, and I felt lucky to get near it. A wine that spends its life in stone, and I do not mean a concrete egg or any usual vessel, but something genuinely strange: a sarcophagus carved from basalt, the kind of thing you expect to find guarding a mummy in an Egyptian pyramid, not cradling a wine.

Krispel's B1 matures in the estate's basalt cellar. The name stands for perseverance, consistency and prudence. It is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc from Neusetzberg (Erste Lage) and Grauburgunder from Hochstrandl (Große Lage). After three weeks fermenting on the skins to pull out maximum aroma, it spends twelve months in large oak, then another twelve inside those basalt stone barrels. Krispel's philosophy is that in the basalt the wine soaks up the inexhaustible energy of the volcanic land.

Can you taste it? To me, absolutely: a wine like nothing I had met before. Extraordinary power, call it superpowers if you like, huge depth, lingering ripe stone fruit and still that crisp acidity, with a texture and mouthfeel drawn out by the skin contact. I still cannot stop thinking about it. We even saw the special B1 2015, due for release in the summer of 2024, a single basalt sarcophagus lying in a darkened room under a soft spotlight, music playing all day to coax the wine into absorbing every drop of energy. One of a kind, and worth the trip on its own.

A region on the rise

Vulkanland is finally getting its due on the world stage. Eruption wines in particular, have become collector bait, prized for their character and their cellar life, and the region's growers keep experimenting, testing what this extraordinary terroir can do. Like everywhere, they face climate change, market pressure and the eternal tension between tradition and innovation, but resilience is baked in here. Vulkanland Steiermark is terroir-driven winemaking at full voice: volcanic soil, singular climate and a community of growers turning nature, history and craft into something you cannot taste anywhere else. The world is only starting to catch on. If you want to know which cellars to pull over for, I have written a companion guide to the wineries worth visiting in Vulkanland.

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Written by

Margot van Lieshout DipWSET FWS RV

Wine marketeer, sales expert with over 20 years in the trade, public speaker and international wine judge. Thousands of wines scored from Steiermark to Ningxia, and a trade she knows from the inside out. Wine with Margot is where she helps wine brands tell the stories that sell them.

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