The very late-bottled 2006 Gruner Veltliner Tradition (each year representing the same grapes as the Renner bottling) offers a smoky, dusty pungency in the nose suggesting both botrytis and crushed stones. This tastes singularly of grilled yellow tomatoes, red peppers, and bacon, with a side of green beans and a faint hint of caramelized parsnip. Then there is a rich core of savory, saline, marine, alkaline mineral character and a reprise of smoke and crushed stones, all as hard to miss as they are difficult to adequately describe. The texture here is slightly grainy (reflecting a long stay in cask) and more intriguing than it is sensually alluring – just like everything about this wine. It finishes with an array of animal and mineral nuances one would normally associate only with Burgundy, but there are also vegetable notes specific to Gruner Veltliner. The track record is beginning to suggest that these “Tradition” wines will evolve interestingly in bottle for a decade or more, which given that the early-to-mid twentieth century methods they attempt to replicate were focused on vinous stability, makes sense. (For details on Moosbrugger’s methodology with his “Tradition” cuvees, please consult my report in issue 160.) Michael Moosbrugger did not begin his main white wine harvest – even for lighter-weight Gruner Veltliner – until mid-October. Unlike most Krems area growers he also picked nobly sweet wine, based on a late bloom of botrytis. Moosbrugger seems to have achieved some (considering the weather) surprisingly successful reds in 2007, having painstakingly cut off half of each cluster to inhibit the development of rot, then harvested prior to any of his whites. (I’ll report on those reds after I have re-tasted them from bottle. For notes on two outstanding 2006 vintage reds which have since lived up to their promise in bottle, consult my report in issue 177.)Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300
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