Winemaker Notes
The vineyard Ried Katterstein was first mentioned in official records in the year 1570, and consists of many small parcels of vines, separated from each other by ditches, watercourses, embankments and wooded tracts. Climbing upward from 220 metres above sea level, these vineyards on the Leithagebirge above Kleinhöflein extend to the edge of the forest that forms the site’s northern border at 300 metres.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Sometimes the flintiness in high-end chardonnays can be a bit overwhelming when the wines are young, but in this wine it is positively fragrant! Delicate notes of lemon curd, fresh pineapple and mini banana. On the medium-bodied palate this is super-elegant and very precise. Stunning interplay of cool citrus and pineapple fruit with complex minerality at the very long finish. From quite a high-altitude site with slate and chalk soil. Fermented and matured in barriques on the full lees for a year.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
The source of Austria’s finest botrytized sweet wines, Burgenland covers a lofty portion of Austria's wine producing real estate. It encompasses the smaller regions of Neusiedlersee, Neusiedlersee-Hügelland, Mittelburgenland and Südburgenland. The latter two are most associated with their exceptional red wines. The region as a whole produces no shortage of important whites.
Neusiedlersee, named for the lake that it surrounds to the east, is home to a great diversity of grape varieties. The region’s most notable wines, however, are the botrytis-infected, sweet versions.
Neusiedlersee-Hügelland, which wraps the lake on its western side, includes the town of Rust, a historically esteemed wine community. Its close proximity to the lake’s fog and mist make it another source of some of the more prestigious botrytized wines. Neusiedlersee-Hügelland also produces fine Blaufränkisch, Pinot Blanc, Neuburger and Grüner Veltliner, though a label will usually name the more general, Burgenland, so as not to confuse it with its eastern cousin, Neusiedlersee, across the lake.
Blaufränkisch is well suited to and makes up over half of the vineyard area in Mittelburgenland. The region’s hills and plateaus, which are composed of variations in schist, loess and clay-limestone, produce high quality reds with interesting diversity.
Südburgenland, also known for its deep, complex and age-worthy Blaufränkisch, is beginning to turn out some alluring whites from Grüner Veltliner, Welschriesling and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc).