Winemaker Notes
Gruner Veltliner makes an excellent partner for seafood and shellfish, and also for pork, veal, domestic and game birds.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Grüner Veltliner Renner 1ÖTW has intense and ripe fruit aromas on the nose, along with some spicy flavors. This Gruner is ripe and intense, very elegant and serious. Round and elegant on the palate, this full-bodied wine develops a good tension and structure combined with intensity and extract. This is powerful and promising. Rating: 92(+) Points
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Wine Enthusiast
There's an almost honeyed edge to the nose of this charming, composed wine. The sprightly palate is highlighted by a spritz of lemon here and there and the occasional flash of white pepper. This has a masterfully light touch.
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.