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Food & Wine

Love on the Rocks: Intro

One is spicy and exotic; the other is fruity and statuesque.
Both are lip-smacking delicious

Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, two undeniably Austrian white wine varietals.
The pure precise fruit, compact powerful extract, and long-lingering mineral finish of an Austrian Riesling will never be confused for one from Germany, Alsace, or anywhere else in the world. Although other classic regions are now trying to ape Austria's fashionable dry style of Riesling, the terroir remains inimitable. While Riesling will always be interpreted as a variety for fussy intellectuals, Austria’s most popular variety, Grüner Veltliner is now enjoying the limelight in the international wine press and being swirled and sipped by wine lovers worldwide.

Up until about five years ago the native grape that makes up 36% of Austrian vineyards was virtually unknown outside the country. The wide range of styles of Grüner Veltliner makes it versatile enough to be paired with anything from a Wiener schnitzel to an exotic Pacific Rim creation or a spicy vegetarian dish. GV (as the grape is affectionately called) is tantalizing the palates of connoisseurs everywhere.

The province called Niederösterreich (Lower Austria) is with the exception of a few small pockets, white wine country. More than half of Austria's wines come from the eight wine districts within this province. During the day the sun shines on hillsides of heat-retaining crystalline and metamorphic rocky soils such as weathered primary rock, loess, slate, and gneiss. Warm air reaches into the region from Hungary's Pannonian steppe to the east. At night the vineyards are cooled down by both the Danube River and fresh breezes from the wooded countryside to the north and west. With an average yearly precipitation between 500 and 600 mm and a vegetation period of up to 200 days, grape aromas benefit from a long ambient growing season.

 

 

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Steep terraced vineyard slopes like Ried Hasel in Strass are common in Lower Austria.
Steep terraced vineyard slopes like Ried Hasel in Strass are common in Lower Austria.