DAN'S WINE BLOG- GO, GO GRUNNER

Friday, December 2, 2022

 Last Thursday I attended a sensational Grüner Grower’s Group tasting at Hahndorf Hill Winery. The Grüner Grower’s Group (GGG) comprises of most of the 45 Grüner Veltliner growers, in the Adelaide Hills.

 Grüner Veltliner (Grüner) is an Austrian native superstar white grape variety that is taking the world by storm. Here in Australia the very first Grüner wine was the excellent, 2009 Lark Hill (Canberra) Grüner. Followed the next year by the first Hahndorf Hill Grüner. Today there are over 50 Grüner growers spread throughout the cooler wine growing districts of Australia.

 A few years ago the Grüner growers in the Adeliade Hill formed the GGG which until Covid, met regularly to taste each other’s wines, discuss growing issues and most importantly, benchmarking the local product against Austrian wine samples. Let me tell you that the locals give the Austrians a “bloody good run for their money”, in terms of quality.

 At this meeting there were 58 wines on taste, mainly Grüner, but also the field blend, Gemischter Satz, as the Austrians call it as well as samples of the three main Austrian red varieties – Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt and St Laurent.

 Starting with the main attraction, Grüner Veltliner, there were 35 wines, roughly half Austrian and half Aussie.

 The Aussie’s included: 

 ►Lark Hill Canberra 2018

►Briar Ridge Tumbarumba 2018

►OSSA Wines 2021 from Belbrook Tasmania

►Sinapius Tasmania 2019

►Frankland Estate 2021 Organic from WA

►Nick Spencer Wines Gundagai/Tumbarumba – super cool climate.

From the GGG, Adelaide Hills:

 ►Art Wines -In the Groove 2022

►Artis Wines 2022-

►Berrigan 2022- Gold Medal Royal Adelaide Wine Show

►Hand Crafted by Geoff Hardy 2022

►K1 2022

►Hahndorf Hill GRU 2021

►Hahndorf Hill White Mischief 2022 – 3 gold medals

►Hahndorf Hill Green Angel 2021 Late Harvest. Divine

►Longview 2021 and the 2022 which has just won the trophy for the Best Single Varietal White at Royal Melbourne Wine Show.

►Mt Bera 2022

►Mt Bera Gruvee 2020

►Pike & Joyce 2022

 Each and every one of them was an excellent wine displaying the inherent commonality of the variety along with the differences resulting from the winemakers individual decisions/choices.

 This was followed by five field blends (Gemischter Satz) – four from Vienna (home of the concept) and the first vintage of the sensational Hahndorf Hill 2022 Brother Nature Field Blend (A trophy plus two gold medals so far). It is the “This Week’s Wine Review” in next week’s blog, but for the moment suffice it to say, “Holy carp Batman” she’s a ripper!!

 Turning to the reds, there were eight Blaufränkisch wines, including three Aussies:

 ►Mt Bera 2021 Blaufränkisch – a big rich wine with lashings of delightful flavours.

►Hahndorf Hill Blueblood 2019 Blaufränkisch – slightly lighter style, vibrant, elegant with a tight, food-friendly, lingering finish.

►Hahndorf Hill Blueblood 2015 – OMG! What a great advertisement for the potential of this variety. Maturing gracefully, rounding out, stacks of palate pampering flavours with a still, slightly tight finish. Drop dead gorgeous.

 There were six Zweigelt wines on taste, three Austrian plus all three Australian wines (so far).

 The Australian ones were:

 ►Andrew Peace 2020 Sunraysia Zweigelt – Superb, bright, lively with lashings of yummy flavours

►Mt Bera 2021 Adelaide Hills Zweigelt – fabulous structure and heaps of flavour. They also make a very interesting Zweigelt/Pinot Noir blend.

►Hahndorf Hill Zsa Zsa 2020 Adelaide Hills Zweigelt – A classy wine showing great aplomb and succulent flavours.

 Apart from the challenge of saying the name (one of my friends calls it, Ziggy) and remembering it, I believe that Zweigelt has a stellar future here as the “go to” wine for people looking for flavoursome, lighter style wines and/or looking for a change from Pinot Noir.

 The top Austrian wine was the Domiane Wachau 2019 Blauer Zweigelt – an ubber classy example of what this variety can achieve/has to offer. Brilliant now and with a long life in front of it. Available at www.differentdrop.com and well worth checking out.

 There were five samples of the “new kid on the block” – St Laurent. Four Austrian plus the sensational (inaugural) Hahndorf Hill 2020 St Laurent, which will be reviewed in depth after the Christmas break.

 The top Austrian was the Weingut Famille Auer 2016 Thermenregion St Laurent – which at six-years-old is evolving sensationally with divine, blossoming fruit flavours and a still tight, classy finish, making it a stunning food wine.

 So what did the tasting show? As with earlier ones I attended pre-Covid, it showed that the Austrian native grape varieties grown here in Australia can and do “mix it” with the Austrians very successfully. That is, Australia produces world-class Grüner Veltliner and other wines from Austrian native varieties. There are a few bottle shops (especially in the Adelaide Hills) which do stock some Austrian wines, so if you can grab a bottle and line it up against any of the wines mentioned here, the Aussie will not disappoint.

 When you get a chance (make one) to try any of the strange sounding but sublime wines made here from emerging native Austrian varieties, you will be pleasantly surprised by the unique flavours and the quality.

 Cheers or Prost, Dan T.