Falstaff Schaumweinfestival Wien 2026 – Kamptal Takes Centre Stage

A year ago I left the Atelierhaus with the feeling of having attended a great success. Falstaff has brought the Schaumweinfestival back to the same venue in the centre of Vienna, and the choice proves to be a good one: the Atelierhaus has a modern charm that pairs well with sparkling wine, and the event has the care and elegance that the magazine knows how to bring to its events, as we saw this summer at the Grüner Veltliner Festival.

Compared to 2025, the layout of the stands has changed. Last year, Italian traditional-method wines – Alta Langa and Franciacorta – had taken the lion’s share. This year the focus has shifted to Austria, with the Kamptal in the front row, alongside Champagne houses, two Crémants, the Prosecco of Valdobbiadene, and a Slovenian winery.

Trends at the Falstaff Schaumweinfestival Wien 2026

• Kamptal leads Austrian Sekt. Bründlmayer, Jurtschitsch and Schloss Gobelsburg brought the most complete and coherent ranges, and the Austrian producers as a whole performed better than both the 2025 edition and the average of the Austrian sparkling wines in my archive.
• Blanc de Blancs is the crown jewel. From Bründlmayer as well as Jurtschitsch, the best wine at each stand was the pure Chardonnay, with structural acidity, creaminess and precision.
• It was a day of rosé. I tasted eight of them and the average level was higher than that of the sparkling rosés I have recorded over the years. The best comes from a producer I had never come across before.
• Champagne remains a certainty. Drappier, Charles Heidsieck and Laurianne Lejour landed exactly on the average of the Champagnes in my archive, with two excellent highlights.
• Prosecco suffers by comparison. Tasted after a series of traditional-method wines, the Extra Dry style showed its sweetness more than usual.

Kamptal in the Front Row

Bründlmayer was the stand of the day. The Brut Reserve, the entry-level label, has the almond paste and the fruit of the Kamptal without being obvious, with a very distinct perlage: good, elegant and classic, and far from what one would expect of an entry level. The Brut Rosé N.V. turns more serious with oxidative and evolved notes, of old furniture, while the Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut Reserve 2019 leaned on soft pastry aromas, tea leaves and almonds – very good and perfectly balanced. The pinnacle is the Blanc de Blancs, exceptional.

Perhaps the best of the day: nose of lemon peel and lime, pastry (some evolution is present), very crisp green apple. A medium body, fresh and very precise, yet broad. Classic perlage. The lees are there, but extraordinarily elegant.

From my notes on the Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut Reserve N.V. by Bründlmayer

This producer bets on a very classical approach and profile, and it shows, with bottles that are consistently elegant and considered.

Jurtschitsch brought the most lively range of the day. The Große Reserve Brut Nature declares its aromatic notes without being obvious – plenty of cut grass and wildflowers (the base is Grüner Veltliner), vibrant yet classy. The Brut Rosé N.V. is their sparkling wine I have tasted the most times overall – this was the fourth – and my verdict has always stayed between good and very good. This time wild, meaty notes emerge alongside jasmine, for a serious and very dry rosé. The Blanc de Blancs Brut is excellent: straight and precise, lots of lemon, a rich and alluring jasmine note, a perfect perlage and the acidity of a great wine, with creaminess and balance despite the producer’s ever-determined approach.

Schloss Gobelsburg and Malat, from the nearby Kremstal, offered a simpler and more straightforward style. Gobelsburg’s Brut Reserve N.V. has a lively and carefree bubble, an elegant apple note and an interesting hay note, with a saline finish – a good and nimble aperitif wine. The Brut Rosé N.V. plays on wild strawberry and vibrant acidity, the Blanc de Blancs N.V. is austere, taut and fresh. The step up comes with the Vintage Extra Brut 2013, very good, rounded, evolved yet balanced, with hints of attic and saffron and a fine length. From Malat, the Reserve Brut, Reserve Brut Rosé and Grosse Reserve Blanc de Blancs are all solid, but without real flair: the rosé focuses on florality and small berries, a classic aperitif style, while the Grosse Reserve tries to impress with autolytic notes of bread and oven and a good texture.

A Short Glossary of Sekt

To navigate Austrian labels and dosage levels, here are the terms most commonly found at the stands.

Sekt Austria Klassik

The first tier of the protected-designation Sekt pyramid (g.U.): at least 9 months on lees, grapes from a single Bundesland, any sparkling method.

Sekt Austria Reserve

Traditional method only, at least 18 months on lees, hand harvesting and dosage of Brut or lower.

Sekt Austria Große Reserve

Traditional method, at least 30 months on lees, grapes from a single municipality with the option to state the vineyard. This is the level of the Große Reserve from Jurtschitsch and the one from Malat.

Brut Nature

Fewer than 3 grams of sugar per litre, no added dosage.

Extra Brut

Up to 6 grams per litre.

Brut

Up to 12 grams per litre.

Extra Dry

Between 12 and 17 grams per litre, so sweeter than Brut despite the name. A very common style in Prosecco.

Champagne, the Certainties

The French houses remain a key draw for the event. From Drappier, the Carte d’Or Extra Brut is good, with aromas of bread crust, a very precise perlage and a savoury finish, but it is the Clarevallis Extra Brut that leaves a mark. It is excellent in its vinous nature, with hints of sandalwood, baked apples and the depth of crème brûlée, and the medium-full body – almost chewy – compensates for a perlage that is not the fullest. One I would happily taste again.

Charles Heidsieck arrived with the bar set very high, because last year the Brut Réserve N.V. had been one of my two best wines of the event. This year both the Brut Réserve and the Blanc de Blancs N.V. were very good – the first with precision, fairly ripe fruit and a creamy body, the second with aromas of wet rock and white flowers, a citric body and a saline finish. A notch below what I remembered, but still great wines.

Laurianne Lejour offered the most interesting contrast of the Champagne section: the Brut Champagne Grand Cru is excellent, unabashedly indulgent, with lots of pastry and apricot jam, while the Sauvage Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru is more classical – apple and pear on the nose, crisp and with some autolytic depth, very good and less daring than the former.

A Day of Rosé

The common thread of the afternoon was rosé. The best came from Weingut Josef Fritz, a Wagram winery I had never encountered before: the Pinot Noir Rosé Sekt 2021 is excellent, with notes of blood orange, an extrovert and ever-changing character, and a perlage more complex than the usual Austrian bubbles. One to revisit, as is the Blanc de Noir 2022 from the same winery – very good, more classical but with vivid fruit and the quiet power of wines that reveal themselves little by little.

Close behind come the rosés from Jurtschitsch and Bründlmayer, then those from Malat, Gobelsburg and Dveri Pax. The Slovenian winery presented a homogeneous range, all good: the Dp Brut Rosé 2018 stays on small red fruits, the Dp Brut Furmint 2020 lives off the acidity of the Furmint that bursts at the end of the sip, slightly floral and juicy, and the Dp Brut Classic 2014 is straightforward, with a good perlage.

On the French Crémant side, the Crémant d’Alsace Brut Rosé N.V. by Joseph Cattin and the Prestige Chardonnay Crémant de Bourgogne by Moillard-Grivot are adequate – both taut, lively and citric, with a fruit hardened by a metallic streak.

The Prosecco from Andreola

Andreola brought Prosecco in its most classic form. The Dirupo Valdobbiadene Extra Dry has wisteria, fruit drops, green melon and candied citrus, a creamy texture and evident sweetness. The Dirupo Valdobbiadene Brut is friendly and taut, with a cucumber note, while the Bollé Rosé Extra Dry – with Moscato in the blend – and the Stefano Pola Bianco da Bianco Extra Brut are the more straightforward ones. All adequate, and context matters here: when I tasted them in 2025, in a different setting and alongside other Proseccos, the Dirupo Extra Dry and the Bollé had seemed very good to me. After an afternoon of traditional-method wines, the sugar in the Extra Dry weighs more heavily.

Compared to My Archive

Ten of the wines tasted I had already come across – at the previous edition or elsewhere – and the comparison helps to read the day.

The consistent performers are all Austrian: Bründlmayer and Jurtschitsch maintain their level, and the Blanc de Blancs from the Langenlois winery climbs even higher. The dips involve two Champagnes that had been exceptional last year and two Proseccos tasted in a different context.

In Conclusion

The Schaumweinfestival remains the reference event in Vienna for lovers of sparkling wine. In a single afternoon you travel from the Kamptal to Champagne, from Alsace to Valdobbiadene all the way to Slovenian Styria, with the organisational care that Falstaff has accustomed us to. If you love sparkling wine and are in the city at the end of September, it is an afternoon worth marking in your calendar.

Our Awards

1. Best Wine: Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut Reserve N.V. by Bründlmayer