Winemaker Notes
Fully ripened apricot and a touch of lecithin, grapy and balanced, immediately gains depth; youthful and powerful, texture firm, then again yellow-fruit components,generally juicy and very fruity, remains on the palate, promising, spirited acidity on the finish, many points for popularity.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The interplay between ripe tropical fruit, apple tart and then much brighter mountain flowers and spices, such as eidelweiss and orange blossom, infused in spring mist. Very full-bodied and powerful, but impeccably nuanced and structured, in view of the piercing, tightly wound acidity.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From Zöbing, the 2018 Ried Gaisberg 1ÖTW is deep, pure and flinty on the concentrated and complex nose. Tight and fresh on the pure and crystalline palate, this is a firmly structured, finessed and salty, still very young and tight Riesling with impressive grip and tension. The 2018 Gaisberg is a very promising dry Riesling that will improve in the bottle. Keep it cool for at least three or four years.
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
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.