2011 Domane Wachau Loibenberg Grüner Veltliner Federspiel, Wachau, Austria
Like most of the people, until these recent years I didn't know anything about the "Grüner Veltliner" which is Austria's signature white wine grape. This is most widely planted variety. When it comes to Austro-German wines, I'm a Riesling go-er. But after trying this bottle of Grüner Veltliner, I don't loose any opportunity to add one bottle to my collection! The price range is around 10 Euros. No cork by the way :))) If you like dry white wines, Austria nowadays makes brilliant, world class dry white wines.
Origin: Austria -
Wachau | Variety: Grüner Veltliner | Producer: Domäne
Wachau
Domäne
Wachau is one of Austria’s most renowned wineries, based in Austria’s most
prestigious wine growing region, the Wachau. Steep terraced yineyards, a cool,
marginal climate and meagre primary rock soils define the wines. „Federspiel“
stands for dry, medium bodied and elegantly balanced wines of the Wachau.
Loibenberg
Loibenberg is one of the „Grand Crus“ of Austria. The ancient dry stone
walls dating back to the 14th century reach up to 420 m above sea level. The
soil is dominated by weathered primary-rock, the so called „Gföhler Gneiss“,
with layers of loess and loam in some areas. Warm pannonian airstreams make
Loibenberg the „hotplate“ of the Wachau. Stretching out over more than 20
hectares, the Loibenberg is the Wachau’s biggest single vineyard and famous for
its diversified microclimate.
Tasting Note
Medium golden yellow, pronounced and inviting on the nose. Aromas of white
pepper meld with tobacco and yellow apple. Hints of tropical fruit add
complexity. Due to its warmer climate and southern exposition, Loibenberg
yields more concentrated and powerful, yet perfectly balanced Federspiels.
Lively acidity and long finish.
How
to enjoy best
Serve
chilled at 9°C. Drink now or store to mature for 2-3 years. Perfectly
accompanies the traditional Austrian cuisine, e.g. the famous „Wiener
Schnitzel“ or the classic beef pot roast. A very versatile accompaniment to
many types of cheese.
Grüner Veltliner
Parentage: Natural offspring of Traminer and St. Georgen. The second parent variety
was found in St. Georgen in Austria's Burgenland. This grape variety was named after its discovery location
because, following genetic research, it could not be attributed to any known
variety. The Grüner Veltliner is not related to the Roter Veltliner and Frühroter Veltliner.
Vineyard area: 13,518 ha, 29.4%
Grüner Veltliner is
the most important autochthonous grape variety in Austria. It was most widespread in
the 1950s because of the introduction then of Lenz Moser´s Hochkultur (High
Culture) training system. Today, the variety is widely planted especially in
Niederösterreich and northern Burgenland. As an origin-typical DACwine, this variety holds special rank in several
wine-growing regions. While its cultivation decreased by 22% between 1999 and
2009, it still maintains the dominant position in Austria's total vineyard
surface area.
Grüner Veltliner
Grüner
Veltliner is the most widely planted grape variety in Austria, accounting for
37 percent of the country's total vineyard area, about 50,875 acres. Most of
these vines are in the large wine region known as Niederösterreich (Lower
Austria), along the Danube River north of Vienna. It also grows in a few other
Eastern European countries, such as Slovakia, Yugoslavia and the Czech
Republic, but the variety is most closely associated with Austria, where it has
been cultivated since Roman times. Simply put, Grüner Veltliner is the
indigenous variety of Austria.
Until recently, Grüner Veltliner had
always been considered a high-production commercial grape, best suited for the
simple, easy-drinking wines that flow so freely in the ubiquitous Heurigen (wine
pubs) of Austria. Like Riesling, this variety adapts easily to many soil types
and can tolerate higher crop levels. Thus, it seemed a natural fit for theLenz
Moser vine training system. This system, named for the Austrian
producer who developed it, was designed for high yields in widely spaced
vineyards that could easily be worked with machines to reduce labor costs. The
result was light, simple wines -- and lots of them.
Since the early 1980s, when the quality
pendulum started swinging back toward the positive side in Austria, the Lenz
Moser system has fallen out of favor. Austria's serious winemakers have
discovered that, with lower yields and higher ripeness, Grüner Veltliner can
produce stunningly intense and concentrated wines. Even the simple wines, from
overcropped vines and underripe fruit, can have very pleasant citrus and
grapefruit aromas, with a hint of the variety's most distinguishing
characteristic: the spicy fragrance of freshly ground white pepper.
Today's better wines, however, from top
sites and lower yields, can be astonishingly complex, full of exotic tropical
fruits, white pepper and lentils. They can also show aromas of green beans or
asparagus, an engaging "vegetable" smell that is seldom
"vegetal", especially when grown in mineral soil.
There is a vast amount of ordinary Grüner
Veltliner grown in the Weinviertel, a district within Niederösterreich and
Austria's single largest winegrowing area. Although there is some potential
here, the wines are mostly of the simple sort and primarily consumed locally at
the many wine pubs. Currently the best wines from this variety are being made
in the three smaller, adjoining districts along the Danube: the Wachau, Kremstal and Kamptal.
In just a couple of decades, the Wachau
has become widely known as the source of some of the most powerful, incisive
dry Rieslings made today. The steep, terraced vineyards and very warm climate
here provide exceptional ripeness for massive, big-boned wines.
The predominance of primary rocksoils
(granite and gniess) gives the wines a nearly monolithic structure
that is mysteriously nimble; forceful without being overbearing; big without
being heavy. Grüner Veltliner grown in these soils also shows this massive
build, becoming deeply perfumed and complex as they age. It is like drinking
liquid stone.
While the finest Grüner Veltliners from
the Wachau are deep and powerful, the most elegant examples of this variety
come from the Kremstal and Kamptal. Here, sandy loam and loess soils
are lighter than those in the Wachau, but still very much mineral in
composition. Grüner Veltliner finds its finest balance in loess, the
fine-grained, densely compacted glacial dust that has blown in over many
thousands of years. The best wines from this type of soil will age gracefully
for many years, becoming ever more elegant and refined as the decades pass.
It's ability to age beautifully is one of
the many interesting characteristics that Grüner Veltliner shares with
Riesling. Both varieties have naturally high acidity, an essential component of
wine that will age well. With today's improved winemaking technology, it is
still too soon to say how the modern versions of wines from either grape will
age for the long term, but the indications are quite positive. And in the
Wachau, the consensus seems to be that Grüner Veltliner will ultimately be the
longer lived variety.
Great Austrian Grüner Veltliner Vineyards
|
Wachau
Loibenberg
Ried Schütt
Kellerberg
Achleiten
Steinriegl
Hochrain (Wösendorf)
Honivogl
|
Kremstal
Senftenberger Piri
|
Kamptal
Käferberg
Ried Lamm
Spiegel
Zöbinger Heiligenstein
|
Grüner Veltliner also matches Riesling's
ability to capture the essential character of a particular vineyard through its
crystalline clarity and purity of flavor (i.e. lack of oak treatment). Thus, it
is very interesting to taste examples from different vineyards side by side,
especially wines that have some age because, with time, they become more and
more expressive of their origins.
In Austria, however, it is still very much
the tradition to drink the wine as young as possible, which is somewhat
regrettable; and to drink them with food, which is absolutely correct. Grüner
Veltliner is perhaps the single most versatile food wine in the world, often
surpassing even Riesling because of its ability to pair with
"difficult" foods such as artichokes and asparagus.
Except for an occasional dessert wine made
from botrytis-affected grapes, Grüner Veltliner is usually a full-bodied dry
wine (up to 14% alcohol) with a firm mineral backbone, giving it the strength
of character to work well with many cuisines. It is especially well suited to
modern cooking that focuses on the fresh flavor of local ingredients and the
variety is eagerly being embraced by creative chefs and innovative sommeliers
around the world.
Kirk Wille
Monastrell is a thick-skinned, black grape high in tannins and late to ripen. It’s a difficult grape to grow with a tendency to produce good yields one year and small yields the next, and growers have to wait as long as ten years for new vines to produce commercial quantities of fruit. It grows best in hot climates with long growing seasons, like one finds in the Spanish comunidad autónoma (i.e., regional government) of Murcia, home to the Denominaciones de Origen (DO’s) of Jumilla, Yecla, and Bullas. The high altitudes of most the vineyards in these DO’s ensure cool nighttime temperatures and large diurnal temperature variations that ensure acidity in the wines.
With 32 thousand hectares under vine, Jumilla is the largest of Murcia’s DO’s. It’s also the oldest, having acquired DO status in 1956. But in one sense, it’s a century behind the times. With its sandy soils, Jumilla escaped Spain’s phylloxera epidemic of the late 19th century only to find the nasty bug invading its vineyards a century later. While the infestation reduced production significantly, the need to replant gave Jumilla the opportunity to improve its vineyards, which it did with the strong encouragement of the consejo regulador of the DO. Improved vineyard management and better winemaking led to wines of significantly higher quality and helped put Jumilla on the international wine map. About 85 percent of total vineyard acreage is in Monastrell.
