Fresh fruit for summer sipping
By Joe Hyam
A WHITE wine grape that is bound to appeal to customers in the current hot summer is Grüner Veltliner. Dry yet fruity, with a touch of herbs and spices, it is still fresh on the palate.
Grüner Veltliner is Austria's best-known and most widely planted grape variety, but it has not received the international attention it deserves. Though it is normally drunk young, in wine growers' taverns where wine is sold straight from the vat it can develop character in the bottle. There is something reminiscent of Alsace in the style of the Grüner Veltliner wines of the Wachau, especially those with some bottle age.
Austrian wines are appearing on supermarket shelves and beginning to win trophies at blind tastings. At last year's International Wine Challenge, Austria won trophies for the overall best white wine and best late-harvested wine, and a red Austrian wine made from the St Laurent grape came first in the best Burgundy-style category.
About 10 Grüner Veltliners are available in the UK. The following four give a good idea of what the grape can do.
Aperitif
Brndlmayer, a grower in the Kamtal region, has a fresh, unusually fruity and concentrated Grüner Veltliner. The 1995 is a delight with food or as an aperitif. At a trade price of about £59 a case from Cambridge wine merchant Noel Young Wines (01223 844744), it is good value even if you have to list it at £10 a bottle.
For something less complex but crisp and clean, try the 1995 Lenz-Mîser Selection. You can get it from Chalié Richards (01306 884412) at £39 a case. Lenz-Mîser sells every two bottles of Austrian wine imported to the UK, and is well known for its environment-friendly viniculture - all its vineyards are organic.
For a contrast in style, try the 1995 Winzerhaus, available from Caxton Tower Wines (0181-758 4500), at about £35 a case. The wine has a vibrant acidity and the fruit is right up-front. This is a friendly, quaffable wine, which would do well in wine bars or as a house wine.
Finally, for a more mature Grüner Veltliner, try the 1991 Smaragd Arndorfer Pogen from the Freie Weingartner co-operative in the Wachau. "Smaragd" is the local name for an emerald-green lizard found in the sunniest spots in the vineyards, and signifies that the wine is made from the ripest grapes. The four years this wine has spent in the bottle have modified the sharpness of its youth to give a rich, complex yet rounded texture, with a firm backbone of acidity. It is great value at £62.44 a case from FWW Wines UK (0181-786 8161).
