Riesling Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Wojciech BońkowskiWojciech Bońkowski

Pichler-Krutzler: high fly

In four vintages Elisabeth Pichler and Erich Krutzler have risen from zero to the status of undisputed stars. Meet Austria’s hottest double name.

Schubert Herrenberg Spätlese feinherb 2006

Spätlese feinherb: not something you’d remotely look forward to, yet this 2006 from Schubert is just a stunning Riesling.

I’ve spent a week on the Garda Lake last September, exploring the region’s wines and foods. Blessed with hundreds of thousands of affluent tourists each year, the Garda produces predominantly a serious rosé called chiaretto, followed by some interesting lightish reds from the local Groppello grape.

Garda vineyards at Padenghe.

White wine, contrarily to what you might expect from a holiday destination with delicious lake fish, takes a back stage. The area’s historical white, Tocai, has now shrunk to the 60 hectares or so of the obscure San Martino della Battaglia DOC: pithy and mineral with Tocai’s low acidity, the wine has some interest but remains a curiosity. (One good producer is Spia d’Italia whose Bianco dell’Erta 2008 I enjoyed).

Some of the Luganas I recommend.

Far more popular is Lugana, a tourist’s favourite from the Trebbiano di Lugana (aka Turbiana) grape grown on a patch of clay soils at Garda’s extreme south. Lugana is very widely available and at 8–10€ a somewhat pricey but reliable light- to medium-bodied white with good minerality. From a tasting session of roughly twenty wines, my favourites were Olivini, Tenuta Roveglia, Provenza and, last not least, the very serious duo of Luganas from San Giovanni, including the assertive, mouthfilling Busocaldo made according to a bizarre recipe where the wine is aged on twenty times the amount of its own lees (!).

However, it’s the whites wines from Garda’s western shore that have caught my eye during this stay. Curiously, the Riesling Renano (German Riesling) has a long tradition here, and appears as a varietal or blended with Chardonnay, Riesling Italico and/or Manzoni. Given the area’s mild, Mediterranean, well-ventilated climate the wines acquire a rich, broad character unlike Riesling in Germany, but the grape’s inherent acidic drive provides really good balance.

The white Gardas worth seeking come from Comincioli (Perlí blends Trebbiano with local Erbamat – exceptionally there’s not Riesling – short skin contact results in plenty of saline minerality and a really interesting profile); Monte Cicogna (Il Torrione), and San Giovanni (Reis: one of the most mineral wines I’ve had).

Today I am retasting a memorable bottle I had at Cantrina. This peculiar estate a bit further west from the Garda belongs to artist Cristina Inganni, and was originally conceived as a Pinot Noir winery. Over the years the emphasis has switched towards local grapes such as Groppello and Riesling, though the entire range is highly individual and reflects Cristina’s very free, unorthodox approach.

The dry white Riné has also evolved: originally stronger on Chardonnay, the 2002 vintage we tasted was showing broad-shouldered and a little oaky although surely not yet another oaked Chardonnay: the heavy, stoney clay soils here gives wines with plenty of backbone and that distinctive saline taste of minerality. (They’re not too high in acids, on the other hand). The 2007 Riné has over 50% Riesling and so is a crisper, juicier white. It’s already a little advanced (consistently with Cristina’s saying: Mi piacciono vini bianchi evoluti) but has plenty of substance and an interesting interplay between creamy ripeness and mineral terroir. A very personal wine.

Cristina Inganni and Diego Lavo of Cantrina.

Disclosure

Source of wine: received as gift upon a visit to the winery.

Germany’s roll of honour

2009 was a vintage of high expectations in Germany. The favourable weather, naturally low yield and excellent harvest conditions combined to generate another excellent year in our stellar decade, after 2007, 2005, 2002 and 2001. My repeated tastings earlier this spring were ones of excitement and consistently high quality. So the stakes were really high when I embarked on the Erste Lage Sneak Preview tasting organised in Wiesbaden by the VDP association of wine estates. From the nearly 400 wines on offer I tasted 170 Rieslings over two days. These wines are the equivalent of grand cru bottlings and are essentially the very best of German dry white wine.

In brief, I was not disappointed. The overall level is very high. What’s really interesting about 2009 is that it’s a ripe year with abundant and expressive fruit (that’s the difference to 2008, which I criticised last year – perhaps slightly too harshly – for being green and mean) but it also pretty high acidity, which gives the wines brilliance and tension and will help them age longer than the 2007s and 2005s. It’s a rare combination to have so much vibrancy with so much ripe fruit, and it’s the real excitement of 2009.

I have liked many of the Rieslings I’ve tried but one region that has really shone is the tiny Nahe. Always high on any connoisseur’s list, it has surpassed itself this year with a long list of outstanding wines from such estates as Kruger-Rumpf (a superb Kapellenberg), Dönnhoff (I’ve not always been thrilled by the dry wines of this sweet wine master but the Hermannshöhle as well as the cheaper Dellchen left nothing to be desired), Emrich-Schönleber and Schäfer-Fröhlich.

The Rheingau has been a bit mixed with definite highs such a Johannishof’s Berg Rottland, Robert Weil, Jakob Jung and Josef Spreitzer, but also some relative disappointments, and I’ve been generally underwhelmed by the Palatinate where many wines were atypically green and fruitless. These two regions failing to take full advantage of the vintage, it’s the Rheinhessen, often an underdog, who I think takes second place. Among the many good wines were the young Wagner-Stempel (especially the Heerkretz) and a tremendous performance from well-established (and fully organic) Wittmann that could well be the best collection of the vintage.

Wine of the vintage?

There are least three dozen wines I would like to own and drink both in the short and long term. It’s all good news provided your banker likes Riesling too; at between 16 and 40€ per bottle these are wines are hardly for everyday enjoyment.

Immortality

An incredible tasting of old Rieslings – we went back to 1909! Most were still very much alive. And even more surprisingly – bone-dry, even though you’d expect a Riesling to have residual sugar to age for so long. Not here!

In the Wachau: why genes matter

Spent a day in the Wachau region in Austria with its spectacular scenery of terraced vineyards in the narrow valley of the Danube, and its beautiful Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners. We visited some of the region’s giants: Franz Hirtzberger with his powerful, late-picked, botrytis-affected wines from Spitz; Rudi Pichler with his meticulous, modern, puristic approach and transparent wines (the 2009 Kirchweg Riesling has fantastic punch and dimension, and is one of my wines of the vintage); Knoll with his very classic, long-maturing, alluringly spicy wines from the warmer Loiben vineyards.

Franz Hirtzberger Jr. in the spectacular Singerriedel vineyard.

But it was a 2-hour tasting with Toni Bodenstein at the Prager winery that proved the most memorable. Though defining himself as Homo rusticus, Bodenstein has a fantastically thorough approach and one of the deepest knowledge of the vine and terroir that I’ve come across. If you think the geological difference between gneiss, paragneiss and amphibolite have nothing to do with the wine in your glass, taste Prager’s two Rieslings from the Achleiten and Klaus vineyards: basically coming from adjacent parcels on the same hill but on different rock formations, the wines are like night and day, the Klaus an acidic, skinny, inquisitive, stern creature and the Achleiten its solar, open-minded, high-spirited opposite.

Toni Bodenstein: Wachau’s deepest mind?

The 2009 Rieslings here are impressive but the Grüner Veltliners are simply awesome (especially in the context of other 2009s, often excessively soft and rich). Bodenstein made the wise decision of acquiring many old vineyards when he took up the property: now these 1940s and 1950s plantings are delivering wines of great depth and complexity. It has also encouraged Bodenstein to reappreciate and saveguard the old clones of Grüner Veltliner that can be found in those old vineyards. The Wachstum Bodenstein, from a small parcel in the Achleiten that was replanted in 2003 with selected old cuttings from a variety of sourced in the Wachau and other regions in Austria, is a glowing testimony to the complexity and dimension that is lost when just a few ‘approved’ clones are reproduced by vine nurseries and replanted on a large scale by wineries. And yet this wine is towered by the 2009 Stockkultur Grüner Veltliner: painstakingly farmed at a record 16,000 vines/hectare on high narrow terraces are forgotten old clones going back to 1937, giving amazing complexity with a vibrant vegetal sappiness and spicy reminiscences of the Orient.

Rudi Pichler (not) posing for a photo.

No relation to the wine in your glass? On the very contrary; the genetic diversity of our grape varieties is a crucial issue for the future of viticulture and winemaking.

Disclaimer
Accomodation during my stay in the Wachau is paid for by the Austrian Wine Marketing Board. All wines were provided by the producers.

Austrian marvels

I’m in Austria for the VieVinum event, the major tasting opportunity for Austrian wines. VieVinum has a more relaxed feel than similar trade fairs and combined with the near-perfect organisation (if only air conditioning was improved…) this makes for a memorable vinous experience.

The VieVinum takes place in the spectacular interiors of the imperial Hofburg palace.

My tastings this year focus on the 2009 vintage which is looking very promising for the white wines from Riesling and Austria’s signature grape, Grüner Veltliner. A warm, dry vintage, it has actually favoured Riesling a bit more, with some Veltliners crossing the thin line between rich and excessively soft. On the positive side, many of the lighter less expensive Veltliners will provide spectacularly good early drinking.

But in general I have a preference for the Rieslings which are both more aromatic and fresher in taste, with a good balance even at high ripeness. There are some lovely wines from the usual suspects such as Willi Bründlmayer in the Kamptal region (his Heiligenstein Lyra is a masterpiece of harmony and completeness), or Prager and Franz Hirtzberger in Wachau. But I’ve also tracked down some lesser-known estates with great bargains. Franz-Joseph Gritsch from the town of Spitz in the Wachau has a lovely range of Veltliners and Rieslings, and overdelivers also in the Federspiel categories (which will cost you less than 10€). Andreas Lehensteiner from Weissenkirchen has an attractively clean, firm style, and at 14€ his Hinterkirchen Riesling Smaragd is one of the region’s bargains. High up in a remote side valley in Viessling, Josef Gritsch of the Graben Gritsch estate is making some impressively puristic mineral wines including a range of lovely Gelber Muskatellers (it’s rare to see so much minerality in a Muscat), and at 14€ his Setzberg Riesling Smaragd 2009 might well be the best bargain of the fair.

Josef Gritsch proudly presenting his Riesling.

There were some very good Veltliners, too, especially at the Erste Lage presentation: 2009 is the first vintage for this new category, roughly equivalent to the French grand cru and German Grosses Gewächs (see here for my post on this). Introduced in the regions of Kamptal, Kremstal, Traisental and Wagram by the private vintners’ association Traditionsweingüter Österreich, Erste Lage is a winning idea: the concept is clear (the best vineyard sites are classified and distinguished) and the quality level of the wines is high.

I’ve tasted through 49 samples and my favourite Veltliners included Salomon’s Lindberg, Petra Unger’s Oberfeld Alte Reben, and Ludwig Ehn’s controversial and bold Titan. But one wine that outshone all others was the Renner Veltliner from Schoss Gobelsburg: after many rich, soft, slightly obese 2009s this is a marvel of crystalline minerality and freshness.

Ever wondered what becomes of opened bottles at wine fairs? …Vinegar!

Disclaimer
I taste at the VieVinum fair on the invitation of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, which pays for my flights, accommodation and wine tasting programme.

Van Volxem Riesling Rotschiefer 2004

Weingut Van Volxem is already one of the leading estates in Germany, but it seems to be making progress with every vintage. Here I look back at a 6-year-old Riesling and comment on how the winery’s style has subtly changed.

Château Belá 2004

It’s a natural instinct for a Polish wine drinker to closely follow the vinous progresses of our immediate neighbours, Saxony, Bohemia, Slovakia, the Ukraine, as well as our pre-1939 neighbours such as Romania and pre-1772 ones including Hungary and Moldavia. Of all these countries, Slovakia has been delivering the sorest disappointments. Despite the obvious availability of good terroirs progress has been very slow. Shopping randomly in a wine shop in Bratislava or leading wine town Modra, you’re guaranteed to bump into a record-high amount of faulty and unexciting bottles.

How much Slovakia is missing in terms of quality has been consistently demonstrated since 2001 by Egon Müller, Germany’s – and for some, the world’s – leading Riesling vintner. Through family affairs Müller has taken over some 20 hectares in the south of the country, on the Danube and the Hungarian border (Štúrovo is the nearby city and wine appellation). The estate of Château Belá has been delivering a lovely off-dry Riesling, or Rizling Rýnsky as it’s called locally, with plenty of minerality and personality.

The 2004 vintage I’m tasting today belongs to the sweeter wines produced here (2005 and 2007 are nearly dry). Its structure, in fact, is very peculiar: it has plenty of sugar on the level of a German Auslese or Alsatian vendange tardive but double the amount of acidity of those styles. The result is a fabulously bold, searing style of wine that’s difficult to classify. The aromatic spectrum is very varietal – stone fruit, citrus and honey – with plenty of minerality wrapped around the acidic backbone. And with this acidity, it’s hardly surprising this wine is ageing so well. This 2004 vintage is already showing quite a mature bouquet of wax, dried herbs, cool cellar (the elusive German Firne aroma) but on the palate there is huge lemony freshness. It’s really an explosively expressive wine – technically far from perfect balanced and challenging to some palates but in the era of bland international-styled wines, the personality of this Riesling is a rare gem. Slovakia can produce brilliant wine – and hopefully it will follow on Belá’s trail.

Pichler-Krutzler: high fly

Schubert Herrenberg Spätlese feinherb 2006

Happy holidays!

Lake Garda: exciting whites