To celebrate the Winter Olympics that just concluded, we decided to entertain an evening of Gruner Vetliner, the most commonly planted grape of Austria. If you follow the Olympics you probably know that Austria generally performs well in the Winter Games surely due to their proximity to the wintry mountainous range referred to as the Alps providing training practically year-round. This year, Austria came in 5th in the overall medal standings behind U.S., Germany, Canada, and Norway. Not too shabby, I guess.
Not too shabby is also what I would call the wines we tasted as part of this event. Please note that we received these wines as free samples thanks to Constance (@VinoCC). Gruner Vetliner, or GruVe (Groo-Vee), is typically made as a dry wine, fairly full-bodied and with spicy notes. Grooner pairs well with vegetable dishes as well as salads, which I guess is mostly made up of veggies so that was a bit repetitive. The lineup that we enjoyed are a good way to get your feet wet in this variety and add another notch in your belt. To enhance the evening, more GruV was brought to the party from our friend Matt Mauldin of Wine and I who also works in the industry. We had a good balance of foodies and winos including my wife, SuburbanWino, EatItAtlanta, and SavoryExposure.
The Olympians were as follows (all 2008 vintages): Weingut Wieninger, Weingut Stadt Krems Kremstal, Lois, and Austrian Pepper. All displayed the perfume, citrus and peppery notes as expected though in varying degrees. The Lois did not have as much oomph to it when compared to the others, and was a bit bitter on the finish. The Wieninger was my favorite followed closely by the Stadt Krems. Enjoying a single variety by devoting a single evening to the style over several wines rather than just a single glass or bottle really helps with understanding the nuances of the grape and allows you to more easily put those sensory evaluations into memory for future tastings so you can readily identify the variety next time.
The three GruVe’s from Wolfgang(Thanks Matt!!) were a nice addition to the party. They included the self-titled Wolfgang, which consists of early-picked grapes and no malolaction fermentation (MLF) helping keep acidity and crispness high and is best enjoyed fairly young; the Concerto, which is made up of fully ripened fruit, aged shortly on lees and completes MLF to give it more rich flavors and feel; and the Vienna, picked from a single vineyard, aged on lees in barrel and subsequent MLF to give it the fullest body of any wine of the evening.
Some very good GruVe are age-able and are said to rival some great Burgundies, but I don’t think we had any of those on our table tonite. I enjoyed the complex components of citrus, perfume and spice as well as the unexpected texture from some of these wines. I might try some more Gruners as Spring and Summer approaches to go with some grilled veggies and see how that turns out.
Cheers!
I’ve had the Lois before- it came across as a little bitter on the finish at first to me as well, but really seemed to mellow and show the fruit on later bottles. I ended up really liking it. That was the 2007. I’d love to try some of the others you mentioned sometime.
Thanks Matt! We appreciate the Wolgang you provided via Joe for the evening… wish you could’ve joined us!