Austrian wine at its best!

On a sunny Saturday in June, we hosted a fabulous tasting here in the Stockbridge shop, along with Tim from Alpine Wines. We were showing four new additions to our range - all from countries or regions where the mountains feature.

My particular favourite of the tasting was the 'Goldberg' Roter Veltliner from Wagram in Austria - a top-notch wine from a 'Ried' or single vineyard. This vineyard is called 'Goldberg', based in the quality wine-making region of Wagram - north of the River Danube.

The soil here is loess (a very soft powdery soil), which means that the vines' roots have to burrow very deep to get water (no irrigation here!) and nutrients to help the grapes grow. This gives the wine more concentrated flavours and a minerally taste.

The wine is made from a grape called 'Roter Veltliner' which is an indigenous white grape, but with a reddish grape skin - giving the wine a lovely deep yellow colour. The wine is made with minimal intervention in stainless steel, with no oak. Amazingly, this wine can be aged for up to 10 years - I certainly like to try it again in a few years to see how it has developed!

It has a wonderful intensity in the glass, when you put your nose in (indicates a good quality wine) - you can really smell that minerality (think pebbles on a river-bank). The nose also gives away ripe and exotic fruits, including passionfruit and guava. Great acidity running through the wine balances the abundance of flavours on the palate:- lychees, papaya, spice (nutmeg and pepper) - this is a richly honeyed and complex wine with a long finish. Such mazing value for a top wine - wold be a great alternative to an Alsace Grand Cru - Pinot Gris or Gewutrztraminer, but equally it can stand up to French Burgundy.

This would be amazing with food - spicy Thai food or Chinese especially.

Really punches above its weight at £23.95.

Enjoy!

Kat.