Decanted
Wine competitions - their advantages and disadvantages, and even the relevance of entering, will usually ignite a good discussion amongst wine folk.
Sorting through what’s new, what’s hot and what should be on great wine lists, including for the rest of Summer 2015 and into the Autumn, should include due consideration of emerging varieties and styles of wine. Grüner Veltliner, Pinot Blanc and even Osteiner are making an impact outside New Zealand - a few savvy local vignerons have noticed this and are taking advantage of these grapes’ affinity with the local climate and soils.
GV or Grüner Veltliner’s first home (Austria) has most plantings in the regions of Lower Austria and Burgenland. It is also found in Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Replublic. Each of these places has their own name for the variety (usually ending in “…veltliner”), and the true origins of the grape remain somewhat of a mystery. The genetic parentage of Grüner has (so far) identified Traminer crossed with St. Georgener-Rebe as the most likely.
GV has some interesting, varied aromatic and flavour attributes including citrus, green bean, radish, lentil, white pepper and watercress. It’s usually dry and high in acidity which means it can be a great alternative to Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. Grüner is rarely, if ever, matured in oak – it doesn’t respond well. Foods that are light, crisp and ‘zippy’ in flavour tend to work well for pairings. One of the notable attributes of great Grüner is the chalk-like mineral texture which is a fine complement for sashimi, oysters and most shell fish. All of these qualities may be found in some good quality New Zealand examples, although the mineral character can be a little hard to detect.
Food and wine pairings need not be difficult - use similar rules to Sauvignon Blanc, but tone down herbs and spices if they are a feature in the food. Menu items such as goats’ cheese, rocket and pear salad, oysters and delicate Asian cuisines are great offerings with Grüner.
Locally, some of our more adventurous wine makers are testing the use of traditional label terms to describe the sweetness level in Riesling: Kabinett is a drier expression than, say, Auslese. These terms do make sense when you consider the range of sweetness levels available with Riesling and the back label scale only works if you bother to look. Don’t be surprised if you start to see a few Grüner label terms appearing such as those associated with some Austrian wines: Steinfeder is the least sweet (similar to Kabinett), Federspiel next (similar to Spatlese), and Smaragd has more residual sugar again (similar to Auslese). Steinfeder (a local grass found in the vineyards) is the lightest style, with a maximum alcohol of 11.5%; Federspiel has a final alcohol range of 11.5%-12.5%; and Smaragd has a minimum alcohol of 12.5%.
