Winemaker Notes
Refined vetiver aromas, sweet smoke and oleander – exceptionally beautiful! The palate is ecstatic; sweetly taut, the exhalings of happy plants, the curious mystery of chlorophyll and waving meadows, the rippling of rabbit muscles, the smile of sinew as they take the stretch they needed.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2019 Grüner Veltliner Im Weingebirge Smaragd grew in loess above gneiss and was fermented and aged in wood, where it stayed for three years before bottling and release in spring 2024. Wax, yeast and a touch of honey suggest evolution on the nose. The waxiness, perfumed with orange peel, follows through onto the surprisingly light but concentrated body. Balm-like texture accentuates the waxiness and completely buffers the undeniable, vivid acidity. This is an unusual but beautifully textured wine with a noble, pleasant bitterness on the long finish.
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James Suckling
Full-bodied, creamy and textured, this shows aromas of manuka honey, apricots and touches of salted caramel and nougat. Layered, with delicious dried herb and nut undertones coming through. 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.