Grüner Veltliner
Grüner Veltliner
Main page
2173023

Grüner Veltliner

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Grüner Veltliner

Grüner Veltliner (Green Veltliner) German: [ˈɡʁyːnɐ fɛltˈliːnɐ] ) is a white wine grape variety grown primarily in Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. The leaves of the grape vine are five-lobed with bunches that are long but compact, and deep green grapes that ripen in mid-late October in the Northern Hemisphere.

In 2008, Grüner Veltliner plantations in Austria stood at 17,151 hectares (42,380 acres), and it accounts for 32.6% of all vineyards in the country, almost all of it being grown in the northeast of the country. Thus, it is the most-planted grape variety in Austria. Some is made into sparkling wine in the far northeast around Poysdorf. Along the Danube to the west of Vienna, in Wachau, Kremstal and Kamptal, it grows with Riesling in terraces on slopes so steep they can barely retain any soil. The result is a very pure, mineral wine capable of long aging, that stands comparison with some of the great wines of the world. In recent blind tastings organized by the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, Grüner Veltliners have beaten world-class Chardonnays from the likes of Mondavi and Maison Louis Latour.

Outside of Austria, Grüner Veltliner is the second most widely grown white grape variety in the Czech Republic, encompassing approximately 2,120 hectares (5,200 acres) and resulting in approximately 11% of Czech wine production. In recent years a few US wineries have started to grow and bottle Grüner Veltliner.

Some ampelographers (such as Hermann Goethe in his 1887 handbook of ampelography) have long assumed that Grüner Veltliner is not related to the other varieties with "Veltliner" in their name (such as Roter Veltliner), or that it is only distantly related. A first DNA analysis in the late 1990s secured Savagnin (Traminer) as one parent of Grüner Veltliner, but was not able to identify the other parent among the candidates studied. The other parent was later found to be an originally unnamed variety of which only a single, abandoned, very old and weakened vine was found in St. Georgen am Leithagebirge outside Eisenstadt in Austria. The grape is therefore referred to as St. Georgener-Rebe or "St. Georgen-vine".

Grüner Veltliner has a reputation of being a particularly food-friendly wine and is a popular offering on restaurant wine lists. It is made into wines of many different styles - much is intended for drinking young in the Heuriger (bars serving new wine) of Vienna, a little is made into sparkling wine, but some is capable of long aging. The steep vineyards of the Danube (Donau) west of Vienna produce very pure, mineral Grüner Veltliners intended for laying down. Down in the plains, citrus and peach flavors are more apparent, with spicy notes of pepper and sometimes tobacco.

Grüner Veltliner has been believed to date back to Roman times, with its name being derived from Veltlin (Valtellina) in northern Italy, though ampelographers and wine historians have yet to find a link between the grape and the Italian commune. The grape is likely indigenous to Austria. The current name appeared in a document for the first time in 1855; before that time it was known as Weißgipfler. Only by the 1930s was Grüner Veltliner established as the standard name of the grape. Until the Second World War, it was regarded as just another Austrian grape, but after the introduction of Lenz Moser's Hochkultur system of vine training, it expanded quickly in plantation from the 1950s to later become Austria's most planted variety.

In recent years, Grüner Veltliner has seen an uptick in interest following the results of a 2002 wine tasting organized by Masters of Wine Jancis Robinson and Tim Atkin. Here Grüner Veltliner from Austria beat out several highly acclaimed white Grand cru wines from Burgundy.

In 2007, DNA analysis confirmed that Grüner Veltliner was a natural crossing of Savagnin (Traminer) and an obscure Austrian grapevine from the village of Sankt Georgen am Leithagebirge located outside Eisenstadt in the Burgenland region of eastern Austria. The vine was first found in 2000 in an overgrown part of a pasture in a location where there had not been any vineyard since the late 19th century, and is assumed to have been the last vine in this location for over a century. Local experts were not able to determine the variety of the vine. Only when it was threatened to be ripped out in 2005 additional samples were taken and later analyzed at Klosterneuburg. Genetic analysis in the following years by Ferdinand Regner was able to determine that St. Georgener-Rebe is a parent variety to Grüner Veltliner.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.