Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Grüner Veltliner Hefeabzug opens with a clear, fresh and stony bouquet that represents the crystalline Steiner Goldberg (a southeastern-facing site at 300 to 380 meters above sea level) in a lighter yet wonderfully pure style. However, a smaller part of the grapes comes from the loess and loam soils in Mautern. On the palate, this is an intensely fruity and savory Veltliner with almost stewed apricot fruit and ripe, mineral and grippy acidity that gives a straight and remarkably long finish with fine tannins. The wine is very fresh and vivacious yet all of its energy comes from the roots and less from the fruit. This is a remarkable Veltliner with substance, intensity and excellent length. 12% stated alcohol.
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Wine Spectator
Presents light, smoky notes on the nose, with powerful yellow plum, white currant and raspberry flavors. Hints of mocha lead to a finish full of ripe melon and candied citrus elements. Complex.
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.
As Austria’s most prestigious wine growing region, the landscape of the Wachau is—not surprisingly—one of its most dramatic. Millions of years ago, the Danube River chiseled its way through the earth, creating steep terraces of decomposed volcanic and metamorphic rock. Harsh Ice Age winds brought deposits of ancient glacial dust and loess to the terrace’s eastern faces. Today these steep surfaces of nutrient-poor and fast draining soil are home to some of Austria’s very best sites for both Grüner Veltliner and Riesling.
Wachau is small, comprising a mere three percent of Austria’s vine surface and, considering relatively low yields, represents a miniscule proportion of total wine production. Diurnal temperature shifts in Wachau facilitate great balance of sugar and phenolic ripeness in its grapes. At night cold air from the Alps and forests in the northwest displace warm afternoon air, which gets sucked upstream along the Danube.
Its sites are actually so varied and distinct that more emphasis is going into vineyard-designated offerings even despite grape variety. Grüner Veltliner and Riesling are most prominent, but the region produces Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder), Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Zweigelt among other local variants.