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 the Lenz
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.
by
Kirk
Wille
RELATED LINKS
The Austrian
Wine Marketing
Board
site
provides additional information on appellations
and and other grape
cultivars.
AUTHOR
Kirk Wille is co-publisher of The
Riesling Report,
a bi-monthly e-zine that reports on, promotes,
encourages, and publicizes wines made from
Riesling and related varieties. This article is
reprinted from the May/June 2002 issue, with
permission.
