Winemaker Notes
The very steep and meager terraces of the Loiserberg vineyard provide the best conditions for an ideal Grüner Veltliner with a distinct character, deep fruitiness and an elegant style.
An ideal culinary companion for starters, poultry, savoury fish dishes or meat dishes.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Rich apple and lime fruit is married to lime-zest freshness on the medium-bodied palate. Simultaneously quite zesty and pretty firm, this needs a bit more time in the bottle for these elements to fully integrate. Bold and bright finish with some stony minerality. From organically grown grapes
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Vinous
The 2022 Grüner Veltliner Loiserberg is a cool south-southeast facing site of terraced mica schist site, rising to 380 meters. Gentle yeasty funk on the nose shimmers with both citrus and pear peel. The palate brings hayflowers and a touch of balm-like texture. Yeastiness on the mid-palate holds a touch of citrus zest. Still, it wraps itself smoothly around the bright pear and juicy yellow plum before tapering into beautiful freshness, again with a lovely zesty edge. The finish is strait-laced. (Bone-dry)
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.