Winemaker Notes
The single vineyard of Steinsetz is situated south of the castle Gobelsburg and produces and excellent, medium-bodied, zesty and fresh wine. This is a powerful, elegant and well-structured Grüner Veltliner with ripe tropical fruit and nicely bitter flavors on the finish.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
There's a lot to like in this white, which offers a ripe heart of peach and apple, with spice and ground ginger accents. Slightly tropical notes of mango and persimmon add flattering richness, all expertly offset by a wall of mineral details and pink grapefruit acidity, making for a tangy finish, which stretches out effortlessly. Drink now through 2030.
-
Vinous
The 2022 Grüner Veltliner Ried Steinsetz is grown on alluvial Danubian deposits on a former riverbed, sandy and rich in quartzite with a thin loess cover. It was fermented and aged for a year in a large barrel. Moss and lichen on the nose come with a frisson of white pepper and creaminess. The palate continues in this peppery, spicy vein and delivers absolute Grüner spice. Green pear and lemon play second fiddle to this immense savoriness that runs along the slender body like quicksilver.
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.