Schloss Gobelsburg Tradition Riesling, Kamptal, Austria

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After so many dramatic successes in among the nine vintages of Gruner Veltliner thus far released as part of Moosbrugger’s ongoing experiment in turn-back-the-clock wine making, he offers us with his 2009 Riesling Tradition the first such stunning success with that grape. Apricot and purple plum; lime and apple; hazelnut; musky perfumed flowers and smoky black tea all rise from the glass, then saturate the palate along with white pepper, iodine, and seemingly ore-like and crystalline mineral impingements. I can’t avoid perceiving the character of this wine as an instance of long cask maturation leading to rarified, clarified flavors, even as the effect of skin maceration is evidenced in grip and tactile intensity. There are 5,000 liters of this – two Doppelstuck casks – so not only is it evident how much confidence Moosbrugger had in the wine, there also ought to be plenty to go around. How will it age? No one can say given the brief track record at this address for Riesling rendered in this manner, but bear in mind that the manner in question arises from the long period (until the 1960s) when harvest and vinification were with an eye precisely to longevity. So my guess is that this will still be highly distinctively expressive as well as versatile at table a dozen years from now. Michael Moosbrugger pointed out to me this June that those who wait until the second half of November to harvest – by which time he tries always to have finished most of his picking – nearly always incur additional concentration of acidity through frost, which then requires compensatory additional hang time to soften. And 2010 flirted with frost already in October, although luckily the weather cooperated through most of November. High acids were dealt with in the estate wines – where deemed necessary – by permitting some lots to undergo malo-lactic transformation. It’s hard to believe in retrospect how rapidly after taking over Schloss Gobelsburg in 1996, Moosbrugger – with several initial years of collaboration by Willi Brundlmayer – brought this ancient monastic estate to the forefront of Austrian viticulture. But some of the things he claims to have only properly appreciated in very recent years and says will have a profound influence on future wines sound deceptively simple. In the matter of yields, for example, Moosbrugger opines that it took a while to acquire and genuinely appreciate the insight “not to have too many bunches of grapes, but also not too few. In 2006, for instance, we probably had too few. With a few more clusters per vine, the wines are intensive enough, and the alcohol isn’t too elevated.” It’s hard to argue in the face of the balance and expressiveness Moosbrugger has achieved in such dramatically different and distinctively difficult vintages as 2009 and 2010. He is, incidentally, no partisan of entirely organic viticulture, believing in particular that for combating peronospora (downy mildew) certain synthetic systemic and topical treatments are both more effective and environmentally superior to a default use of copper sulfate.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300