Skeleton Gruner Veltliner 2016

Fresh, fruity, and above all, food-friendly, our Grüner Veltliner (”Gru-Vee” for short) shows off the charms that make the grape Austria’s favorite white wine varietal. A racy wine with explosive fruit flavors, a light mineral undercurrent, and a full, expansive finish.

Grüner Veltliner is a white grape best known in Austria, and, to a lesser extent, throughout eastern Europe. The name “Grüner Veltliner” (“grooh-ner VELT-leehn-er”) can be difficult to pronounce, so it is sometimes colloquially referred to as “Grüner”.

The Grüner Veltliner grape is versatile and can produce a wide array of wines, from light and quaffable to rich and concentrated. The best dry Grüner Veltliners are perfumed, bone dry and full bodied, with high acidity and distinctive notes of spice and white pepper. It tends to offer citrus fruit flavors of lemon, lime and grapefruit. The best sweet wines produced from Grüner Veltliner showcase pronounced aromas of baking spice and stone fruit, with ripe fruit flavors and a rich, full mouthfeel that are balanced by ample acidity.

In the vineyard, Grüner Veltliner ripens too late for most of northern Europe, faring considerably better in eastern countries. Grüner Veltliner is susceptible to downy and powdery mildew. It can be highly productive, with large yields of small berries. Higher yields produce lesser quality wines of little varietal character, so top producers tightly control yields. Those wines produced using restricted yield are full bodied and rich, capable of long bottle ageing.

As Austria’s most widely planted grape variety, Grüner Veltliner is unsurprisingly found throughout the country. It is at its best in regions like Kamptal, Kremstal, Vienna, Wachau, Wagram and Weinviertel, and high-quality wines from the Wachau can be classified using the regional’s unique classification system—Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd. Top producers here tend to make Grüner Veltliner wines in a rich, full-bodied style.