Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2018 Grüner Veltliner Im Weingebirge Smaragd was picked from vines planted in loess on top of paragneiss, where they can root deeply. It was made in large barrel, where it matured on lees for three years before bottling. The nose has a tender but pure perfume of dried fruit, golden sultana and supple ripeness, with a hint of hay. The palate is rounded, with a lovely sense of waxy apple skin, white pepper, yeast and rose perfume, all with ample concentration and immense clarity. Depth, quietness and subtlety are the hallmarks of this concentrated and contoured wine. (Bone-dry)
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James Suckling
Attractive nose of acacia honey and super-ripe yellow apple plus some yellow peach (by no means a typical aroma for this grape). This has the richness of the warm vintage, but is still lively with a lovely candied lemon character at the long finish. The touch of fine tannin keeps this straight and deftly underlines the fruit. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification.
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.