2010 Grüner Veltliner
First – a Note About this Groovy Wine
Grüner Veltliner is a white wine grape variety grown primarily in Austria, Slovakia and in the Czech Republic, but recently, it’s taken root in Oregon on our Estate Vineyard site! Grüner has a reputation for being a particularly food-friendly wine – that’s how we fell in love with it upon tasting it in a high-end Thai restaurant in Chicago. Spicy food loves this steely, acid-driven wine that can punch through to cleanse the palate and cool the heat.
In the Vineyard
The 2010 vintage inherited some wonderful DNA from its ’08 elder cousin, having miraculously dry and cool weather late into the month of October. This was our first vintage of GV since we grafted and planted these monsterously vigorous vines four years ago. Harvested Oct 17, its juice chemistry was 22.2 Brix (g/L glucose & fructose), 7.2 TA and 3.12 pH. Birds seem to know a great grape right at perfect ripeness, and our first acre of Grüner was hit pretty hard by a flock of cedar waxwings. They flew off when I touched off a propane noise cannon… I think I heard them singing, “Mein Gott diese Trauben werden zippy gut!”
At the Winery
Grapes were sorted for quality, and the wine press was loaded with whole clusters to immediately press off juice with the highest fruit purity. The resulting juice was cold settled for 3 days then accumulated into a stainless steel floating lid fermentation tank. Juice was innoculated with D47 yeast and fermented quickly at ambient temperatures between 58º and 63ºF. Wine was fermented bone-dry and no malo-lactic fermentation was employed. The finished wine was sterile filtered through cross flow membranes. Prior to bottling the wine was brought to 46 ppM of free Sulfer Dioxide. Seranx lined screw cap closures were used for bottling on January 14, 2011.
At the Table
Racy driving acidity that will take the enamel off your teeth, this wine is not for the faint of palate! With a pale straw color tinged with a hint of green, this wine is brilliantly clear. Aromas of salt air, and clean fresh breeze somehow waft from the glass with hints of Meyer lemon. Flavors are steely and flinty with sweet zippy lemon and hints of dried grass. The wine has bracing acidity and finishes with touches of spice that promise to develop more prominance with age.
