Barbara Öhlzelt

Barbara Öhlzelt farms only around seven hectares in Austria’s Kamptal, quietly making some of the most precise, angelic, energetic wines in the region.

Along with growers like Jurtschitsch, Barbara is redefining what the Kamptal can be. She champions the lesser-known sites; she eschews textures and winemaking extremes in favor of linear focus and quiet, simmering intensity.

This is the Kamptal as fine, clearly delineated and precisely-etched. Barbara is soft-spoken but intense, strongly opinionated, deeply passionate, playful and caring. Yes, she has great parcels in the Heiligenstein, Kamptal’s most historic and justly famous site (it’s a mix of various types of ancient primary and volcanic rock and often described as a geologic wonder), but ask her what her favorite site is and she’ll tell you it’s the Kogelberg, where her 65-year-old Riesling vines are a marvel. She won’t badmouth her fellow growers, but it’s also not lost on anyone that she is trying to do something very, very different.