Laurenz V Friendly Gruner Veltliner 2008 (Niederosterreich, Austria)

by Gareth Groves

I spent last weekend in Austria with 199 like-minded souls who share my passion for both wine and ways of communicating about wine. The third incarnation of the European Wine Bloggers Conference was the biggest and best yet. Away from the work and techie chat, the weekend was all about drinking and talking about wine – and Austrian wine in particular.

On Sunday, a few of us went for a whistlestop tour round the vineyards of the Weinviertel (look out for more on this region next week) to immerse ourselves in Gruner Veltliner.

Gruner Veltliner is Austria’s signature grape. It accounts for over a third of the country’s vineyard coverage and is growing at a fast rate as exports grow. It is to Austria what Malbec is to Argentina or what (dare I say it) Pinotage is to South Africa; a ‘brand’ that can easily be communicated to consumers as a gateway to the country’s wines.

On Sunday, it was cold and foggy in northern Austria but that didn’t stop Weingut Ewald Gruber putting us to work. The Gruber family had  (rather bravely) agreed to let about thirty of us pick a few rows of their Gruner Veltliner.

The idea is to use the grapes to create the first ever EWBC wine. I think we picked enough grapes for at least three or four bottles before we got distracted by the open bottles and speckbrot that had magically appeared at the other side of the vineyard.

The Ewald Gruber Weinviertal Roschitz 2009 was textbook Gruner Veltliner: fresh, crisp and bright with a fabulous balance between the ripe fruit and the zingy acidity with some tell-tale GV spiciness in the mix too. After a back-breaking half-hour of grape picking, it slipped down a treat. It would have made a perfect Wine of the Week but for the fact it is not a Bibendum wine.

Instead, I’ll have to write about another Gruner Veltliner – one made by the grandson of the man who made the grape so popular in Austria.

Laurenz V Friendly Gruner Veltliner 2008 is made by Lenz Moser, a man steeped in Gruner history. Lenz’s grandfather (Laurenz III) was the man who popularised Gruner Veltliner in Austria by inventing a new higher-level trellising system that bears his name and was highly influential in increasing the percentage of Gruner in Austria from 1-2% in the 1950s to over 33% in 2010. Today, Laurenz V is the only Austrian wine brand to focus exclusively on the grape.

Friendly is a wine I have drunk countless times, I served the 2006 vintage at my wedding a few years ago and it is very rare you won’t be able to find one or two bottles with its distinctive green capsule on my wine rack at home.

I love it for the same reasons I love most of the Gruner Veltliners I have tried: it is refreshing, fruity, wonderfully easy to drink and amazingly versatile with food – as happy alongside Thai or Vietnamese as it is a schnitzel or some sea bass.

Friendly is an excellent moniker – not just for this wine but for Gruner Veltliner in general. It really is a fantastic grape. Keep an eye out for it.

The European Wine Bloggers Conference 2010 took place in Vienna between 22-24 October. Look out for more Austrian-themed posts over the next week or two – and follow the Twitter hashag #ewbc to find out more. If you are interested in communicating about wine in any way, shape or form then keep an eye out for EWBC 2011 in Franciacorta, Italy.

Tags: Austria, Ewald Gruber, ewbc, ewbc10, Gruner Veltliner, Laurenz V, Weinviertel, wine of the week

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Bibendum Blog, Featured Wines, Food & Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.