Hahndorf Hill Winery
  Adelaide Hills
At last the Hahndorf Hill GRU 2014 Â has been bottled and the palletized cartons are now being rested in our cool, underground cellars for the next 2 months before being released in September.
Larry with Hahndorf Hill Gruner Veltliner 2014
As I’m typing, I’m sipping on a chilled glass of the 2014 – and I can tell you it’s going to be a real beauty!
The vintage in summary is as follows:
Vintage 2014 had one of the coldest starts to the season that I can recall over the past 15 years, with extreme frost events throughout November. I was, in fact, still lighting a fire at home one week before Christmas!
All this chill at the beginning of the growing season resulted in some of the smallest crops on record right across the Adelaide Hills region. As you can imagine, with yields down and quality the only winner, the 2014 wines are going to be in high demand with lean supplies.
The Gruner Veltliner 2014 was hand-harvested during March and, as expected, yields were low – but the grapes were great!
Some of the grapes were straight fermented in stainless steel tanks with selected yeasts, whereas other batches of grapes were crushed separately, with the juice having some skin contact (to develop the all-important texture) and were then wild fermented in old French barriques. In the end, we had an exciting range of different options from which the final blend for GRU 2014 was made.
In the glass, the wine has an extraordinary vibrant, shimmering, green-gold colour and the nose leaps out with pears, stone-fruit, custard apple and spice. On the palate it is an ethereal beauty! An elegant citrus backbone is surrounded by a vibrant tumble of caramelised citrus, spicy stone-fruit and pear that lingers on the palate with a long, textural tail.
I know that every year I say it … but I suspect this is going to be our best Gruner yet! Can’t wait for you to try it …
To register for pre-release allocations of our 2014 GRU Gruner Veltliner and for further Gruner information – please go to http://bit.ly/XUJJct