2007 Gruner Veltliner Kaferberg

Brundlmayer’s 2007 Gruner Veltliner Kaferberg was harvested at around the same time and under similar conditions to the Lamm, and also aged in a new large Acacia cask – the vessel preferred in Brundlmayer’s father’s day, he says, and now being reintroduced at many Austrian estates (and some in Germany and France). A remarkably multi-faceted and riveting nose of blueberry, Gewurztraminer-like lychee, sugar snap pea, honey, musky narcissus, and herbal liqueur leads into a soothingly rich palate of silken texture and resinous herbal essences (enhanced by the cask), with bitter suggestions of walnut oil and pungency of pepper. If you tried to concoct and dress a salad like this, it would look ridiculously extravagant, but so is this wine. And yet it possesses greater refinement and elegance – as well as a more marrowy sense of mysterious carnality – than the corresponding Lamm. This will be an amazing wine to follow for a decade or more, and will almost certainly gain in profundity, a prospect by turns exciting and almost frightening Willi Brundlmayer harvested through the third week of November, undeterred by frost, harvesting his profound but generally high alcohol Lamm and Kaferberg Gruner Veltliner at a moderate 13.5% alcohol. Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300