Winemaker Notes
Aromatically, this wine leads with a salty citrus edge with earth tones that have exotic hints of North African spices. From there is a depth of jasmine and beautiful citrus driven tropical fruit, reminiscent of squeezing a lime wedge over the fruit of a half cut You can’t hide the ever so present ripe grapefruit component that they often refer to as Squirt…the infamous grapefruit soda.
This is a super interesting wine. It has a harmonious balance of ripeness but a ton of verve and energy on the palate. A base of salty citrus, ginger and white pepper mingle with grapefruit that all lead to a savory zesty finish drenched in minerality. This wine touches both sides of the Grüner spectrum, bright, fresh and vibrant along with texture and a fullness that showcases what makes Edna Valley white wines unique.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
There's a unique aromatic profile to this grape that's hard to pin down, but, at least in this bottling, runs from makrut-lime leaf and green-apple extract to sansho pepper and white pepper. It's very dry and focused on the sip, offering lime-peel, peppercorn, caviar-lime and more green-leaf flavors.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2020 Cadre Band of Stones Grüner Veltliner shows excellent brightness and persistence on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers aromas and flavors of earth, ripe fruit, and flowers. Enjoy it with shrimp tempura atop a seafood Udon soup. (Tasted: July 18, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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Tasting Panel
Smooth, ripe, and lush, mellow and balanced, with bright citrus and nice depth
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.
California’s coolest wine growing area, Edna Valley excels in the production of high quality Central Coast wines like Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Rhône Blends and aromatic white wines. It has a cool Mediterranean climate and an incredibly long growing season, giving late-ripening varieties plenty of opportunity to develop great phenolic complexity.
Its northwest to southeast orientation creates a direct path for cool Pacific air and fog to penetrate the valley from the Los Osos and Morro Bay area inwards. Low hillsides of both calcareous and volcanic soils are home to much of the vineyard acreage of the Edna Valley.