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2012 Veyder Malberg Gruner Veltliner WeitenbergGruner Veltliner from Austria

$71.93

List Price: $99.99

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  • 94 Peter Moser - International Wine Cellar
  • 93 David Schildknecht - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
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About

Ratings:

94

"An enchanting nose displays cantaloupe and mango in a delicate veil of acacia blossom, wild honey and freshly crushed green peppercorn. Flavors of melon, bacon fat and sweet banana are reminiscent of Meursault, but are given new life by the crisp, salty acidity. Perfectly balanced, this powerful wine remains quite refreshing on the finish, sporting lingering minerality. One of the great wines of the vintage."

93 David Schildknecht - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

"Veyder-Malberg's exclusively tank-raised 2012 Gruner Veltliner Weitenberg - from a parcel whose sixty year old vines produce tiny, transparent, Riesling-like berries with flavors all-their-own and different from vine to vine - offers a dramatic stylistic contrast with the corresponding Hochrain. Piquancy of fruit pit and exuberant juiciness of white peach and citrus are also reminiscent of Riesling, and there are firmness of texture and palpable density here, where the Hochrain delivered plushness and buoyancy. The vegetable elements here tend toward roots - notably beet, iris, ginseng, and musky rose radish - as well as dark greens, as such harboring further piquancy. Less flattering than the Hochrain and seemingly in need of longer to harmonize, this finishes with ore-like mineral shadings adding to a complex and energetic interchange. I suspect it will perform impressively through 2025. The berries on these vines, as already adumbrated, always exhibit high skin-to-juice ratio, whose effects, Malberg suggests, were accentuated by 2012's small crop. "It took me a couple of years," after a well-known neighbor had advised him to rip them out, relates Malberg, "before I realized what a genetic treasure these vines are, documenting a traditional vineyard of the Wachau such as scarcely exists anymore.""

"Peter Veyder-Malberg - for much more about whom and about whose vineyard sites, consult my coverage in issue 197 - recently moved into a cellar of his own devising in a stunning and relatively remote vineyard location high above the Spitzer Bach. Its rustic exterior belies the forethought and care - typical in every respect of this vintner - that have gone into designing and outfitting it, and will among other things, thanks to relatively constant cold temperatures, permit Malberg to keep his Weitenberg and Buschenberg in cask over the summer. For this reason among others, look-out in the near future for even more striking and outstanding wines from this iconoclastic grower. Speaking of which, the first - 2013 crop - from the Brandstatt terraces that he painstakingly and back-breakingly rebuilt and replanted will be unveiled later this year. (It fermented on its skins and will stay in cask for a year - "part of my search for Wachau tradition," remarks the author.) Veyder-Malberg always crops short and harvests very early by prevailing Wachau standards, but in 2012 his crop was especially small and picking especially early, beginning already on September 11. "I was finished with the Gruner Veltliner before October 1 and with Riesling October 30. Why?" he asks before answering his own question. "Because I'm concerned about acidity and crunch, and want to keep that lovely freshness. On the whole, flowering was not too bad" across his geographically disparate range of sites, "but in the end there still just wasn't much hanging on the vines." What's more, half of his Riesling in Bruck puckered or shriveled-up in a late August heat spike, including - as photographs testify - virtually all of that up against the walls of his terraces (many of which are only three or four rows deep). "The 2012s look similar to those of 2011 when you read the analytical data," Veyder-Malberg observes, "but in the glass they have more grip." Asked about the significance of temperature at harvest - almost inevitably higher with such early picking dates - Malberg opines that "pressing goes much easier and can be gentler, while positive enzymatic activity and active spontaneous fermentation are encouraged if the grapes are a bit warm. I'm not concerned, because the fruit I harvest is totally clean and healthy, so nothing (bad) is going to happen.""

Product Detail

Item # 80959
Country Austria
Region Niederosterreich-Lower Austria
Sub-Region Wachau
Ratings

94 - Peter Moser - International Wine Cellar

93 - David Schildknecht - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Vintage 2012
Color White
ABV 13.0%
Varietal(s) Gruner Veltliner
Size 750mL
Closure Glass
Features
Taste high acid, asparagus, white pepper, citrus and grapefruit
Nose melon, citrus and spice