Winemaker Notes
Pairs well with classic Austrian cuisine, such as Tafelspitz (boiled Silverside), Backhendl (Austrian fried Chicken), or Wiener Schnitzel, vegetables, when a bit more matured (3-5 years) with gratins, diverse fish-dishes also marinated fish and seafood, smoked salmon and trout etc., as well as with many Pan-Asian dishes.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Creamy, rounded freshness with an immensely savory core of sage, arugula and white pepper make for an understated but seriously delicious white. There is weight and importance here, but it is lightly worn. The spicy, almost salty flavors keep you wanting more.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Welschriesling Trockenbeerenauslese No 4 Zwischen den Seen offers white pepper aromas along with spicy flavors and ripe stone fruit aromas on the intense nose. Very elegant, piquant and intense on the plate, this is a really stimulating TBA with grip and fine tannins. This wine is less sweet than 2012 and 2013, but that's what makes this a delicious TBA already.
Fun to say and delightfully easy to drink, Grüner Veltliner calls Austria its homeland. While some easily quaffable Grüners come in a one-liter—a convenient size—many high caliber single vineyard bottlings can benefit from cellar aging. Somm Secret—About 75% of the world’s Grüner Veltliner comes from Austria but the variety is gaining ground in other countries, namely Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the United States.
Climbing north and slightly east of the Kremstal region, Kamptal has very little vineyard area bordering the Danube River (unlike Wachau and Kremstal, whose vineyards run along it). The region takes its name from the river called Kamp, which traverses it north and south. Kamptal’s densely planted vineyards represent eight percent of Austria’s total.
The area experiences wide diurnal temperature variations like the Wachau but with less rain and more frost. Its vast geologic diversity makes it suitable for various experimentations with other varieties besides Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, such as Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder), Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, St. Laurent and Zweigelt.
But the region is probably most noted for the beautiful and expansive terraced Heiligenstein, arguably one of the world’s top Riesling sites, as well as some of Austria’s most extraordinary Grüner Veltliner vineyards. Kamptal’s soils, which are mostly loess and sand with some gravel and rocks, make it suitable for Grüner Veltliner, so much so that actually half of the zone is planted to that grape.