Winemaker Notes
One of the very few most important GVs in Austria. Most vintages turn out to boggle the mind after about 12-15 years. A couple of them are (for my taste) a little too woody. Willi’s Lamm is also rather more obscure in its youth than, say, Gobelsburg’s, which is more scrutable and evident. A comparison vertical would be both instructive and would waste everyone from getting any work done the rest of the day. In any case, if Austria has a “Montrachet,” this is it.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Still slightly funky from long lees contact, this is very deep and complex with an entire universe of herbal and vegetal aromas. Then, an almost endless, cool finish of radical minerality. Made from organically grown grapes. Long aging potential.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Bründlmayer's intensely yellow colored 2017 Grüner Veltliner Ried Lamm 1ÖTW offers a deep, dense, very clear and slightly oaky bouquet that indicates a substantial wine of great class and style. Full-bodied, lush and very elegant on the well-balanced palate, this is a concentrated, firm, pure, finessed Lamm with great mineral tension on the long, complex, persistently salty finish. A great astringent Ried Lamm with enormous aging potential. It is one of the finest Veltliners I tasted from the 2017 vintage.
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.