Winemaker Notes
Opens with some smokey leafy spice, followed by wood-berries, plums and cherries as well as flowery tones; on the palate, pleasantly dry, opens softly with hints of typical red fruit (see above), before it shows its nice backbone formed of supporting acidity, juvenile grip and a long spicy finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From Dechant and Käferberg, fermented with 50% whole clusters and 50% whole berries for two and a half weeks, aged in 300-liter barrels for 16-18 months and two months in stainless steel, the deep ruby-colored 2018 Pinot Noir offers a clear, fresh, pure and spicy bouquet with toasty oak and fleshy cherry notes intertwined with deep, elegant fruit intermingled with porcini and forest floor aromas. Lush and elegant on the palate, this is a full-bodied, tight, fresh and well-concentrated but juicy Pinot Noir with intensity, power and ripe and juicy fruit but no hints of over-ripeness. This is an excellent Pinot Noir still on its way. 13% stated alcohol. Natural cork.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
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.