Gesellmann’s 2006 G represents a selection of 80 year old vines Blaufrankisch with 5% St. Laurent essayed only in better years and bottled only, incredibly, after 50 days maceration, 40 months in barriques, plus 3 months in large ovals. “With this wine, we go in an extreme direction,” says Albert Gesellmann with an understatement not shared by any of his vinous progeny. Cooked mulberry and blackberry are combined with beef bouillon, soy, mushroom stock, and dried herbs for an impressively rich, savory, palate bath, predictably seasoned with the local version of black pepper. There is a considerable element of resin, spice, and what to me seems extraneous sweetness from the barrel in this wine’s long finish, but no roughness. The 7,000 bottles of this wine were only released last autumn, and I would imagine it might evolve interestingly in bottle for up to a decade.Albert Gesellmann – much influenced by the time he spent in California and South Africa in the mid-1990s – makes no apologies for wanting to produce powerful red wines. I have found a few of those that receive accolades within Austria somewhat overwrought and superficially sweet and oaky, although there is no question that the underlying material is concentrated. The Gesellmanns were among Burgenland’s pioneers with Cabernet and Merlot – some of their Bordelaise vines having recently reached a 25th birthday – but in recent years interest here as elsewhere in Mittelburgenland has been focused more on the traditional Blaufrankisch, on blends with Zweigelt and St. Laurent, and on Pinot Noir. The Gesellmanns are not among those with experimental plots of Syrah, although to taste some of their wines, you might believe otherwise.Importer: Winebow, Montvale, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620.
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