Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Notions of ripe stone fruit are tempered by the herbal savor of arugula and watercress. There is something incredibly ripe at play, combined with something incredibly fresh. There also is a lightness of touch and a limpid intensity. The palate displays all of these things and adds a salty moreish element of yeast. What a wonderful, authentic expression of Gruner. Bravo!
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Ried Renner 1ÖTW offers a rich and perfectly ripe but still fine, elegant and flinty bouquet. The attack on the palate is fresh and piquant; the second impression is rich, ripe, juicy, pretty round, a bit sweet and intense due to the rich extract. However, the freshness does not move and takes the vintage on its wings, carrying it to a long and nicely tannic but also pure and salty finish. This is great Grüner Veltliner with food, even though it is a bit biter on the finish at the moment.
Rating: 91+
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.