The SOMM Journal

June / July 2016

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100 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } JUNE/JULY 2016 { austria } 100 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } JUNE/JULY 2016 The Native Son TOURING GRÜNER VELTLINER, AUSTRIA'S CALLING-CARD VARIETAL by Kyle Billings A third of all grape vines cultivated in Austria are dedicated to Grüner Veltliner. All four major wine growing regions, or weinbaugebiete, extend along the eastern reaches of Austria's border. Compelling reds featuring the Blaufränkisch and Zweigelt grapes are made most notably in the southerly weinbaugebiete of Styria and Burgenland. The remaining two regions dedicated to quality Grüner Veltliner envelop the Baroque city of Vienna: Vienna itself (the only capital city in Europe rec - ognized as a delimited wine region) and Niederösterreich, where 60% of all wine in Austria is made. With a discordant name and obscure parentage, a crossing of ancient varieties Traminer and St. Georgen, the success of Grüner Veltliner in recent years was hardly ordained. And yet the wine has seduced sommeliers and dilettantes alike for its versatility and verve. In the heurigen and watering holes throughout the country, Austrians slake their thirst with this native white wine: aromatic and dry with a racy, acidic lift and a bounty of herbs and spice, notably white pepper. Whether fish or fowl, Grüner Veltliner can complement whatever graces the chef 's table sight unseen and still succeed. Continuing westward, with echoes of Viennese composer Johann Strauss's "On the Beautiful Blue Danube" hanging on the edelweiss, our curious traveler com - mences a quest in search of the finest Grüner Veltliner, sampling wine regions with increasing distinction. The first stop after Vienna is in the largest subzone of the Niederösterreich: Wienviertel. Enacted in 1991, the Austrian appellation system, Districtus Austriae Contrallatus (DAC), rec - ognized Wienviertel, dedicated exclusively to Grüner Veltliner, as the premier DAC region out of an eventual nine currently. Located in the hills north of the Danube River, it's cool climate and limestone-rich soils provide the literal groundwork for lithe and spicy wines, with distinction com - ing from a more significant pepper note than wines from other regions. Aligned firmly in the center of Europe with a latitude corresponding closely with the Canadian-American border along Washington State, the climates of Wienviertel and the other wine-growing regions dedicated to Grüner Veltliner in Austria are adamantly Continental. The Alpine influences colliding with the warm - ing effects of the nearby Pannonian Plain create diurnals and distinct seasons—brief, hot summers and frigid winters—moder - ated alternately by the Danube and its tributaries. Our traveler ventures next into the triumvirate of Traisental, Kamptal and Kremstal regions of the Niederösterreich and their thriving examples of Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. Here, Grüner Veltliner prefers the more fertile loess soils nearer to the river's edge, compared to the granitic soil lofted atop the slopes best suited for its companion, Riesling. Each of these regions is a designated DAC, and in Burgundian fashion all three feature some of the best single-vineyard sites of inter - national renown. These include the Berg vineyards in Traisental, Heiligenstein and Lamm vineyards in Kamptal and Sandgrube and Kögl, the sonorous sobriquets of vine- yards in Kremstal. Kamptal, home to the vital wine-loving town Langenlois, deserves special recognition for its refreshing and vibrant, mineral-driven wines. At long last, the traveler's occidental pilgrimage climaxes in the mecca of Grüner Veltliner winemaking: the Wachau. Starting at the Melk Abbey, remnants of yesteryear such as the Dürnstein Castle (once tem - porary home to Richard the Lionhearted) and the Göttweig Monastery pepper the landscape of this UNESCO world heritage site, standing as peaceful sentries to rows of terraced vines fanned out over rolling green slopes mirroring each other on opposite sides of the Danube like a kaleidoscope of wine butterflies. Austria's most revered wines subscribe to their own governing wine body (and subsequent rules), the Vinea Wachau, which oversees nearly 85 percent of the wines in the Wachau. Their classification system has BEYOND THE NORTHEASTERLY REACHES OF THE VAST ALPINE RANGE, A wearied world traveler settles into a modest inn nestled in an alcove of huddled houses along a suburban expanse of Vienna, Austria. Despite fatigue, a curiosity of the fabled wine taverns, known as heurigen, compels the traveler onto an ivy-laden patio of one of these storied settings. Here, culinary offerings include humble yet undeniably charming local dishes and the most recent season's wine. The rejuvenated traveler rejoices at the discovery of a varietal whose best vinous examples are recognized with international distinction, the crown jewel of Austrian wine: Grüner Veltliner. Alongside the rich musical legacy of Mozart and Beethoven and the scientific advances of Gregor Mendel and Sigmund Freud, the colorful tapestry of Austrian glory includes another of its native sons: the small-berried, late-ripening white grape fermented dry (most often with no oak treatment) to extraordinary results. While Grüner Veltliner is grown in neighboring Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and even as far reaching as Australia and Oregon, the grape reaches its apogee in its Austrian roots. The Achleiten vineyard in Austria's Wachau region is a revered site for Grüner Veltliner.

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