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The Grüner Veltliner Grape


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About Grüner Veltliner

(Synonyms: Grauer Veltliner, Grün Muskateller, Veltliner, Veltliner Grau, Veltliner Grün, Veltlinske Zelené, Veltlínské Zelené, Weissgipfler, Zeleni Vetinec, Zöld Veltelini)

Background

Map showing Austria & the Czech Republic

Grüner Veltliner is a white-wine grape probably originating in Austria, which remains its primary home, though it is also much grown today in both halves of the former Czechoslovakia: Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

(Note on pronunciation: it is GRU-ner felt-LEEN-er; a lot of people pronounce that second word with the wrong syllable emphasised.)

Though an ancient grape, it has only achieved note in modern times, having previously been thought of as a minor and undistinguished grape. Even now, some Grüner Veltliner is still grown and vinified as jug wine. Even better-quality GV tends to be somewhat shy in its youth, and well-made GV improves with bottle age. Descriptions of GV wines are therefore more or less all over the map.

The few common descriptive threads are light citrus-y fruit and a white-pepper overtone; beyond those, one variously hears of celery, lentils, and spice. Better samples, when aged, take on body and weight, and are often compared with white Burgundies (mostly meaning Chardonnay). Like Chardonnay, GV can be made unoaked (as with Chablis), in which case it tends also to show minerality, or quite oaky, in which case it tends to the “fat” quality Chardonnays so treated tend to exhibit. In a sense, then, Grüner Veltliner can be considered more than one wine type (again, as with Chardonnay).

There seems to be quite a hierarchy of GV wines, with a lot of emphasis on the exact place of origin. (It has been remarked that “Life is too short to read a German wine label”, and Austrian wine labels [archived page] are said to be worse; You Have Been Warned.) There is a good general discussion of GV types on the Wine Monger site [archived page], which we recommend (as well as their article, linked above, on Austrian wine classification); we summarize its key points below:

Factoid: the now-common name Grüner Veltliner was only established as the norm in the 1930s. Indeed, its explosive popularity (already seen by some as now fading) dates only to a famous tasting session in 2002, wherein some specimens outranked some top white Burgundies. Whether the grape is has enduringly good qualities or is (or was) a fad remains to be seen.

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Some Descriptions of Grüner Veltliner Wines

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Some Grüner Veltliners to Try

(About this list.)

Judging by critics’ ratings, one might imagine good-quality GV (as Grüner Veltliner is commonly referred to) sloshing down our streets. A skeptic might—just might, we say— wonder if the explosive fad for GVs a few years ago (which fad has now largely deflated) hasn’t had a continuing carryover effect of GVs in general getting over-rated. Or maybe not, maybe there are really just lots of good ones at reasonable prices.

Anyway, here’s our list of candidates.


Netzl “Christina” Grüner Veltliner

• This wine’s Wine Searcher “Reviews” page.
• This wine’s CellarTracker review pages.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by Wine Searcher.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by 1000 Corks.



Gruber-Roschitz “Hundspoint” Grüner Veltliner
(Take care: they bottle numerous named GVs.)

• This wine’s Wine Searcher “Reviews” page.
    CellarTracker has two separate listings for this wine:
• This wine’s CellarTracker review pages.
• This wine’s CellarTracker review pages.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by Wine Searcher.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by 1000 Corks.



Durnberg Grüner Veltliner
(They bottle a baker’s dozen of different GVs; this is their basic (no special name) version.)

• This wine’s Wine Searcher “Reviews” page.
    We believe, but cannot be sure, that this is the same GV referenced in the other links:
• This wine’s CellarTracker review pages.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by Wine Searcher.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by 1000 Corks.



Steininger “Loisium Weingarten” Grüner Veltliner Reserve

• This wine’s Wine Searcher “Reviews” page.
• This wine’s CellarTracker review pages.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by Wine Searcher.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by 1000 Corks.



Ingrid Groiss Grüner Veltliner
(They bottle numerous named GVs; this is their basic bottling.)

• This wine’s Wine Searcher “Reviews” page.
• This wine’s CellarTracker review pages.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by Wine Searcher.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by 1000 Corks.

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For a Splurge

One could pretty nearly just toss a coin to choose between two Smaragd Grüner Veltliners from Prager: their “Achleiten Stockkultur” and their “Wachstum Bodenstein”. Price is no criterion, as they are virtually identical in that ($42 and up into the $90s). Nor are reviews, as they seem to get very similar notes from both pros and consumers (even in a side-by-side tasting). Here, after tossing that coin, we will list the Stockkultur, but you wouldn’t go wrong with either.

So, our nomination is the Prager “Achleiten Stockkultur” Smaragd Grüner Veltliner, which retails for about $42 to $94.

• This wine’s Wine Searcher “Reviews” page.
• This wine’s CellarTracker pages.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by Wine Searcher.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by 1000 Corks.

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This page was last modified on Saturday, 30 October 2021, at 11:26 pm Pacific Time.