Domäne Wachau Grüner Veltliner Federspiel Terrassen

 Domäne Wachau is a large co-operative in Austria with vineyards rising from the Danube. Their Grüner Veltliner is their high volume, well priced standard wine.

The 2021 Domäne Wachau Grüner Veltliner Federspiel Terrassen opens with a pale green colour. The bouquet is pronounced with fruity pear notes.

On the palate, pear and green apple flavours deliver a slightly broad and fruity, yet dry mouthfeel. Apricot and fresh marzipan add interest. The wine is lively on the back palate with white peppery notes and pleasant acidity.

This is a versatile food wine, well suited to Asian food. It is made to drink now.

Score: 90/++

Huber Vision

 

The 2020 Huber Vision Grüner Veltliner comes from an organic vineyard in the small Traisental, near the Danube, maybe 100km west of Vienna. This is Grüner Veltliner country.

The colour of the wine is surprisingly intense, golden green. On the nose, apple and peach flavours rise from the glass.

On the palate, green apple, and citrus flavours hit the front with some spice, not pepper, quite mild. Yellow peach flavours take over down the palate. This wine has a fairly big mouthfeel. It is a little fruity and surprisingly rich for this variety. There is a hint of minerality on the finish. Overall, the wine is well made, but lacks some definition. 

It is interesting what is happening here. 2020 was a warm vintage. As a result, the wine is broader and lacks some acidity. A very knowledgeable friend of mine remarked that Grüner Veltliner has more trouble coping with warm weather than Riesling, which can still deliver balanced acidity in these conditions.

Score: 89/0 

Are Grape Varieties Really Important?

 Are you serious, I hear you say. Well, this question arose in my mind after a tasting of high quality wines of less prominent grape varieties recently.

The most famous regions in France do not feature grape varieties. The argument there is between terroir and producers. Burgundy features terroir, but there is no doubt, producers make a difference. The famous example is the vineyard of Clos de Vougeot, where different producers produce wines of vastly different quality. In Bordeaux, the chateau reigns supreme, but are the differences between Mouton and Lafite all due to winemaking? In any case, grape varieties may not feature, because it is well known that red wine in Burgundy means Pinot Noir, and on the left bank of Bordeaux it is a Cabernet Sauvignon dominant blend, while on the right bank it is Merlot led. 

Two varieties which were presented at this tasting were Malbec and Blaufraenkisch. The Malbec I want to talk about here was the 2016 Cloudburst Malbec from Margaret River. 

This wine tasted like no Argentinian or French Malbec. The fruit profile went the gamut from red over blue to black, and the tannins were powdery and silky. The vineyard sits between forest and ocean and the soil has never seen any pesticides or chemicals in thousands of years. The vineyard is densely planted like no other Malbec vineyard. Was I drinking Malbec or a particular viticulture? 

Intriguing was the tasting of three Blaufraenkisch wines from Austria. Two were from Moric Lutzmannsburg, 2013 and 2007, one the 2014 Gut Oggau Joschuari. 

My expectation of Blaufraenkisch has been: fruit dominant, easy drinking, a quaffer. This was totally different. The Lutzmannsburg wines showed beautiful perfumed aromas and finesse. The young one tasted like a premier cru Gammay, the older one showed Piedmont like aromas. This tasted of terroir, not the grape. 

The Joschuari is an alternative wine, biodynamic, no fining, no filtering, no sulphur. Here the winemaking 'made' the wine not the grape.

Does this mean the grape variety is irrelevant, no, of course not. But it shows that with special attention and skill, the terroir can define a wine, no matter what the grape, and equally winemaking can define a wine, no matter what grape. 

 

 

Domäne Wachau

Tasting the wines from the Domaene Wachau, in particular their Rieslings, is quite a different experience from tasting German Riesling. I will report on four wines from this large, high quality Austrian co-operative.

The two first Rieslings are from the 2015 vintage, which was warm in the Wachau, as in most parts of Europe. The white wines in the Wachau follow a three tiered system. The first is called Steinfeder. These are the lightest wines, early picked, with a maximum level of 11.5% alcohol. The second tier is called Federspiel, with 11.5-12.5% alcohol, and the third tier is the later picked Smaragd with >12.5% alcohol. These wines are still dry, but with bigger body and weight than the other two.

On to the tasting. The first wine is the 2015 Terassen Federspiel Riesling. The grapes come from the  highly regarded, higher elevation vineyards, which are situated on steep slopes leading to the Danube valley. This wine is very refreshing. The floral flavours are subdued, the fruit is not overt. The focus is on texture and minerality. This wine has benefitted from the warmer vintage. It has given the wine more body than normal. However, the wine is still quite linear, not complex, but rather delicate. I liked this wine a lot. In fact, it was my wine of the night (93/+++).

The 2015 Sinerriedel Smaragd Riesling is a single vineyard wine from the cooler western part of the Wachau. But as mentioned, 2015 was a warm year. This wine has a bigger body, and the wine is coating the mouth nicely. However, the wine is a bit broader and loses some definition before it comes to a smooth, prolonged finish. Again, texture is the main game for this good food wine (91/++).

Then there was the 2008 Kellerberg Smaragd Riesling, another single vineyard wine. This wine had aged quite a bit and showed toasted and quite earthy flavours on a fairly broad backbone. This wine did not do it for me (86/-).

Finally, a very rare mature Gruener Veltliner. Veltliner can age quite well, but it is mostly drunk young. Not many mature examples exist. The 2000 Kellerberg Smaragd Gruener Veltliner shows a lot of complexity. There are herbs, mint and truffle on the palate. This wine comes from a cool year. The wine is still fresh and elegant, with well integrated acidity - quite a revelation, and a great wine for many different foods (92/++).

Salomon Undhof Riesling

The world of Riesling is incredibly varied and rich: from dry to sweet, from lean to full-bodied and so on. Austria produces some outstanding examples, and they are quite unique.

Today I am tasting the 2013 Salomon Undhof  Kögl Riesling. The vineyard is located in the Krems region, one of the best in Austria. The vines are grown on southern slopes, consisting of thin chalk layers above crystalline schist.

This is quite a full-flavoured wine, but it is never fruity. Ripe citrus flavours dominate. The wine is quite complex on the palate, with peach, passionfruit, and green olive notes adding to the picture. The mouthfeel is very satisfying, based on the nicely balanced structure. The acidity is non-intrusive, but builds a strong backbone to the wine. Minerality comes through on the dry and lasting finish.

Score: 94/+++

Mac Forbes Gruener Veltiner

Gruener Veltiner is becoming a much sought after variety. To date, very little is grown in Australia. The variety is native to Austria, where Mac Forbes has worked  since 2004. As a result, we see some of his Austrian Veltiner in Australia. The 2010 Mac Forbes Gruener Veltiner is a vibrant wine, tasting of pear, mild spices and minerality. It has quite a full mouthfeel, and the texture is very balanced.  The wine finishes dry and fresh. It is delicious.

This wine is well suited to a variety of foods, in particular salads and Thai/Vietnamese dishes. I would not cellar the wine to take advantage of its current vibrancy.

Score: 92/+++

MacForbes Blaufraenkisch

I bet not too many of you have had Blaufraenkisch. This is a red grape variety, mainly grown in Austria and southwestern Germany. It has delivered fantastic wines over there in the last few years with the warm vintages Europe has had. There is a bit grown in Australia, for example in the Adelaide Hills. I noticed James Halliday highlighted it quite enthusiastically in his last newsletter. Basically the wine is similar to Pinot Noir, but it has  more weight.

The 2009 MacForbes Blaufraenkisch has a violet colour, with a fragrant bouquet. Forest berries dominate the palate. The wine is quite spicy and has some herbal (but not green) characteristics as well. This is an elegant wine with a terrific mouthfeel and just the right balance of tannins and acidity on the finish. Mac Forbes actually makes this wine in Austria, southeast of Vienna, where he worked several vintages some five years ago.

If you have never had such a wine, I would encourage you to track it down, or at least try another Blaufraenkisch. I find many of the 'newer' red varieties lack in one way or another, but this one has legs.

Score: 92/+++

Riesling Tasting

I attended a Riesling tasting which was part of the Frankland Estate International Riesling Tasting. As I mentioned in my last post, I don't drink sweet Riesling, but for those who do, I am reliably informed, you can't go past Framingham Wines, a New Zealand specialist producer of sweet Rieslings.

I started off with the 2011 Polish Hill and Springvale from Grossett, which I though would set a good high benchmark. So they did. The Polish Hill shows lemon and lime fruit, is dry and very linear (94 points). The Springvale, as expected, is a bit more for forward, dryness beats fruit flavour in this year, though (92 points).

The other exciting producer to me was Crawford River. The 2011 Riesling is a bit softer, but has great length (93 points).  The Young Vines Riesling is dry and quite vibrant (91 points).

Frankland Estate produces three dry Riesling, which come from vines grown on different soil. It was interesting to compare the Isolation Ridge, Poison Hill and Netley Road Rieslings, but they did not grab me. They are well made, with good acidity. I found the wines quite perfumed and battling with their dry status (90-92 points).

Other Clare Valley wines (Knappstein, O'Leary Walker, Mt. Horrocks) were a little weaker, still acceptable, but no doubt impacted by the wet 2011 vintage. Major disappointments were Petaluma and Pewsey Vale.

I tried a few German wines, but found them too fruity. The best was an 09  Gunderloch Rothenberg from the Nahe district. The Austrian Rieslings are a little different: They leave solids in the juice to increase mouthfeel and complexity. This style works for me. The Bruendlmayer  Heiligenstein showed attractive minerality (93 points), Pichler was almost as good, but the 2010 Salomon Undhof was too fruity for me.