Winemaker Notes
St. Georg is the village where the second parent grape of Grüner Veltliner was discovered in 2000; Traminer is the mother vine and Sankt Georgen is the father. This site is cooler in temperature, sits mid-slope and is planted on pure limestone. Inspired by Burgundian winemaking techniques, the result of this wine is a very unique—almost Chablisienne-style—of Grüner Veltliner. It is clean and beautifully textured with fresh melon and rhubarb aromatics. Sohm & Kracher recommends decanting this wine.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A rich and very complex, full-bodied dry white that has a Burgundian textural complexity, but also a very Austrian character. I love the interplay of toasted nut, dry straw and floral honey aromas with the flint and lentil notes. Long, complete finish. Still youthful for five years of age. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Aged for four years in barriques and 1,000-liter foudres, the 2019 Grüner Veltliner St. Georg is from Muschelkalk and slate soils in Sankt Georgen, Leithaberg. The intensely yellow-colored wine opens with a deep, rich and intense, elegant, tropical but also yeasty bouquet. Full-bodied, rich and powerful on the palate, this is an elegant, refined, seamlessly textured St Georgen with intense and lush tropical fruit but also the nervy and refreshing lemony/chalky character of the site. This is not only the greatest wine from friends Aldo Sohm and Gerhard Krachher but also a highlight in the white wine canon of the Burgenland.
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Vinous
The 2019 Grüner Veltliner Sankt Georg is from the Leitha limestone of St Georgen. The wine was fermented in large 1,000-liter barrels and used barriques, where it stayed for 4.5 years. A lovely vestige of reduction combines with gentle creaminess and roasted hazelnut on the nose. Creaminess and freshness are foremost on the palate. It is superbly concentrated but not heavy, with wonderfully integrated oak that brings out cut rather than roundness and a long, cooling, elongated finish. This is Grüner, but not as you know it.
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.
Appreciated for superior wines made from indigenous varieties, Austria should be on the radar of any curious wine drinker. A rather cool and dry wine growing region, this country produces wine that is quintessentially European in style: food-friendly with racy acidity, moderate alcohol and fresh fruit flavors.
Austria’s viticultural history is rich and vast, dating back to Celtic tribes with first written record of winemaking starting with the Romans. But the 20th century brought Austria a series of winemaking obstacles, namely the plunder of both world wars, as well as its own self-imposed quality breach. In the mid 1980s, after a handful of shameless vintners were found to have added diethylene glycol (a toxic substance) to their sweet wines to imitate the unctuous qualities imparted by botrytis, Austria’s credibility as a wine-producing country was compromised. While no one was harmed, the incident forced the country to rebound and recover stronger than ever. By the 1990s, Austria was back on the playing field with exports and today is prized globally for its quality standards and dedication to purity and excellence.
Grüner Veltliner, known for its racy acidity and herbal, peppery aromatics, is Austria's most important white variety, comprising nearly a third of Austrian plantings. Riesling in Austria is high in quality but not quantity, planted on less than 5% of the country’s vineyard land. Austrian Rieslings are almost always dry and are full of bright citrus flavors and good acidity. Red varietal wines include the tart and peppery Zweigelt, spicy and dense Blaufränkisch and juicy Saint Laurent. These red varieties are also sometimes blended.