Gruner With Envy
Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 11:49PM 
The 2006 Gruner Veltliner Federspiel Wachau, Terrassen Weissenkirchen, Trockken, Andreas Lehensteiner is a wine that will indeed make many a winemaker green with envy. This is nothing short of an exceptional wine at an unbeatable price. This green/gold beauty is directly plugged into the socket, with an electric bite of mouthwatering acidity carrying ripe apricot and fresh pear flavors along with a firm mineral highlight on its razor edge. This is one of those wines that you can barely get your nose out of the glass long enough to take a sip.
These Austrian wines are the darling of every Master Sommelier in the country and rightfully so. More often than not they are the wine I go to when white wine wine is in order. They remain tremendous values and you can find exceptional examples for under $100 even on wine lists with the stiffest markups.
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Reader Comments (1)
"These Austrian wines are the darling of every Master Sommelier in the country and rightfully so."
Great post! Your quote about reminded me of something I once heard about Austria's Gruner Veltliners. Since the wine is so food-friendly, a sommelier once asked his customers, "What kind of wine would you like, Red, White or Green?"
I was in Austria earlier this month for the Austrian Wine Marketing Board's annual wine summit. I'm working on a project with the AWMB, which is why I got an invitation for this spectacular trip. One of the wine regions we visited was the Wachau. I learned about how the cool, microclimate there allows a wine to express its terroir, which is necessary for great white wines. Some of my favorite wines tasted during this trip were from the Wachau...F.X. Pichler, Domane Wachau, Hogl...the list goes on.
I will have to keep an eye out for the Lehensteiner GruVe. It sounds fantastic. If you ever need any ideas for future Austrian wines you'd like to taste or learn more about please feel free to contact me.
Cheers!