Winemaker Notes
The Käferberg vineyard overlooks Langenlois and is to Gruner Veltliner what the Heiligenstein vineyard is to Riesling - world famous. The roots of the 62-year-old vines grow deep in a very rocky soil and bring a special saltiness in the wine. It is a sunny vineyard, but also very windy. The character of the wine is always a bit richer without being fat. This wine sees two days of maceration on the skins, followed by two months of slow spontaneous fermentation and ten months of aging on the full lees. The vineyard occupies a warm, sheltered site between 300 and 345 meters above sea level, with a southern and southeastern exposure. The soils are variable, with different underlying bedrock: within a small area one can find crystalline rocks such as amphibolite, gneiss, and mica schist, alternating with much younger clay marl, sands, and rare gravels that were deposited in the ancient Paratethys Sea 16 million years ago.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is showing aromas of white pepper, pineapples and orange curd, with some wet stone minerality. It’s compact and full-bodied, but with fantastic freshness and persistency that pulls you back for more. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.
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.