Tidings Magazine

Chances are there’s a Grüner Veltliner in your future. That’s if it hasn’t happened already. Austria’s mainstay white grape can make a surprisingly complex, often delicious white that’s capturing the attention of sommeliers and chefs the world over.

Grüner has been winning more than hearts and minds: most notably, in a 2002 blind tasting orchestrated by British wine gurus Jancis Robinson and Tim Atkin, it beat out some serious Burgundies and other highly rated Chardonnays from Australia and Napa.

Here in North America, we’ve been a little slower to catch on. One reason is that relatively few Grüners (and Austrian wines in general) are available in liquor-board stores. Part of the problem flows from the fact that Austrians support their wine industry with fervour comparable to British Columbians and, as a result, prices are, well, let’s just say, robust. However, our leaping loonie bodes well for consumers on this side of the Atlantic, with the result that more Austrian finds are showing up on local shelves.

Grüner Veltliner — just ask for “Gru-V” to be hip — can have a floral, perfumed aroma with an occasionally mineral and quite peppery personality. In fact, depending on its origin, this chameleon-like wine can express any number of characteristics. Some display a quiet, almost naïve entry before ambushing you with complex mineral notes and a zippy white-pepper spice that can last long into the aftertaste.

Many of the more intriguing GVs come from the Wachau region, where the vines are stressed on steeper primary rock slopes, often terrace-farmed (Terrassen), as well as from the Kamptal and Kremstal regions just north of Vienna.

Unquestionably, the best place to make Grüner’s acquaintance is at Vienna’s Vie Vinum — a biannual tasting event that attracts most of the country’s leading producers, and which is held in the city’s grandly imperial Hofburg Palace.

After tasting extensively for a few days, I found myself lured to the more mineral and complex (and, of couse, pricier) wines but I was also seduced by the more subtle and fruity offerings. Among many highlights, names to watch for include: Brundlmayer, Sollner, Hirtzberger, Holzapfel Archleiten, Rudi Pichler, Salomon ... and too many more to mention (check with your local wine store though).

Grüner Veltliner has been the mainstay of Austrian wine forever — at least since Roman times. Considered to be indigenous, the only grape parent to which it’s been traced is Traminer (think Gerwürztraminer), which might explain its very floral, often quite perfumed rose-petal aromas.

Much of Austria’s grapes winds up in quaffers consumed (often with Wiener schnitzel) in 250-ml glass tankards at Heurigen, the ubiquitous wine gardens that dot the Austrian countryside and even show up right in Vienna — which has more land under vine than any other city in the world.

However, in recent years, as winemakers have developed more sophisticated viticulture techniques and taken greater care in the cellar, the once simple quaffer has taken on a new significance.

More Austrian producers are moving to clever names for their Grüners, including Loimer, one of the best. Loimer’s entry level GV, Lois, is a perfect example of a racy, clean and fresh-tasting wine, if ever there was one — in a nifty package with a green screw cap.

While scores of wineries are within an hour’s drive of the city, you can also taste your way through all of Austria’s wine regions without leaving town. “Look for oil in Vienna and a wine house will sputter up,” says a quote by Günter Bros in the famed Belvedere Palace Museum.

It’s true: wander the side streets around the imposing spire of St Stephan’s, that has defined this city since medieval times, and it doesn’t take long to discover a slice of Austrian wine culture.