Le blog du Grand Jury

As much I admire a good Mersault or a Puligy Montrachet – I love some other white wines at least as much. First Riesling and white Bordeaux. But in my cellar I sample a lot of Grüner Veltliner from Austria too. This wines are often very complex with a good body and length. And some of them have fine minerality, ripe acid gives them freshness. The best Grüner Veltliner are IMO among the best white wines of the world. And a very good alternative to Chardonnay.

The Austrian wine law is quiet similar to the Greman rules. A quality pyramid exists with Federspiel as an equivalent to the German QBA, Steinfeder as an equivalent to a Kabinett and Smaragd as an equivalent to a Spätlese. But some of the best Austrian producer don´t care for categories – they name their wines individualistic. Only the alcohol content gives you some idea how „dry“ the wine probably is and in what style it is produced (11-12% very light and with a pronounced acidity and citrus and apple aroma, 12-13% with elegance and finesse and fruits like pears and peaches, 13-14% full body and the fruit tends to be more tropical. Only a guideline – with exceptions for sure)

Like almost everywhere we see a trend at the top wines toward high ripeness – sometimes even a hint of overripeness. Some Veltliner are made of grapes with botrytis – sometimes 20% of the crop. This is responsible for high alcohol – sometimes around 14-15%. And not surprising this wines are heavy, liqueur like, and I admit: not the style I prefer. This wines are impressive as some Montrachet. But I admire them more as I love them. It is clear that the vintage plays a role. The weather in the wine producing areas of Austria can be very hot. And if fruit is picked fully ripe the sugar level is high. Ergo the wines have a lot of everything. Sometimes too much IMO. But this is a matter of taste and everybody has to taste what style he/she likes.

If Grüner Veltliner is picked without overripeness and in a good year from a talented winemaker it has everything I look for. Freshness, interesting fruit aromatics, a zesty characteristic, good body and length. And they age beautifully. In fact – the good examples are better with some age on them. They develop more nuances with time without loosing freshness. 10 years of aging is no problem when well stored, even 20 years and more are possible. I had some older Veltliner but like them normaly most at the age of 4-8 years.

The list of very good producer is long. An estate I discovered recently is Schloss Gobelsburg. Very fine wines with a lot of elegance and balance. A producer from which I buy in almost every year is Bernhard Ott. His top wine is „Der Ott“. Bründelmeyer is an other producer with a very good program – from bottom to top. Martin Nigl is a world class producer without a doubt. Hirtzberger is a master too. And the famous F.X. Pichler. His wines are very expensive today due to high scores from the Parker-Team. His top wine is called „Unendlich“ (never ending). And while it is actually expensive it is cheap compared to a Batard Montrachet but similar in quality.

My recommendations for those who are willing to try a good Veltliner for a reasonable price (much more good names do exist – these are only 3 examples:

Martin Nigl, „Alte Reben“ very elegant and „Privat“ very complex.

Schloss Gobelsburg, „Steinsetz“ with a lot of minerality, „Lamm“ riper and fuller.

Bründlmeyer, “Loiser Berg“ superb freshness and „Ried Lamm“ very impressive and complete.

The recent vintages:

2004 has not the image of a top vintage. But I like it a lot. „Der Ott“ from Bernhard Ott and „Privat“ from Nigl are wonderful today. 2005 was a riper year but at least for my palate some of the wines have exotic fruit but rather low acidity – at least they taste „sweeter“ IMO. 2006 was a year with high ripeness too but the wines seems to be more balanced. And what I tasted from 2007 already looks very promising.

Last but not least should be mentioned that Grüner Veltliner is the local wine you find in your glass if you visit a „Heurigen“-Restaurant (Heuriger ist the wine from the newest vintage). This dozends of crowded Restaurants around Vienna serve normaly Grüner Veltliner from high yields that has nothing to do with a wine from Nigl, Pichler etc. Don´t make the mistake to confuse this wines. And be sure you will not drink glycol. This problems are long gone – the best Austrian wines undergone a renaissance with no counterpart. The only exception is: Germany!

Here is a link where you will find a map of the Austrian wine producing areas: http://www.weinausoesterreich.at/wein/betriebe.html. If you klick onto the names of the areas you find adresses of producers.

The famous area where most of the top producer of Veltliner are located is Wachau. But at Kamptal and Kremstal you will find a lot of interesting wineries too. Austria ia also a source for great Riesling and a bunch of interesting red wines from various grapes. But this is a different story.