And then there were two … A second Gruner Veltliner debuts in the Adelaide Hills!

Posted on August 31, 2011 by larry

This month has been a ‘Gruner’ of a month for the cool-climate Adelaide Hills wine region. Firstly, our second vintage, the Hahndorf Hill ‘GRU’ Gruner Veltliner 2011 has finally been bottled and labelled and is now resting in our underground cellar awaiting release towards October this year.

It’s been very exciting to see how this variety has been moulded by the terroir of our region – already this young wine is exhibiting a great freshness, a fine minerality and mouthfilling textural components that one would expect from the cool vintage, the low yields that were maintained and the gravelly-slatey soil in which our Gruner is grown. Our three different clones were hand-harvested together and then fermented in stainless tanks until bone dry.

We look forward to its release which we hope to synchronise with the Adelaide Hills’ Spring Whites, Earthly Delights festival in October.

K1 Gruner Veltliner 2011

The second big ‘Gruner’ event in the Adelaide Hills this month was the release of the maiden vintage K1 Gruner Veltliner 2011. This is an exciting milestone for the region and we all hope to welcome several new producers of this variety over the next couple of years.

The K1 Gruner is a perfect example of the crisp, refreshing style of this variety with a bright golden-green colour and enticing green-apple and citrus nose. Wonderfully pure on the palate with a great anticipation of freshness. A marvellously smooth mouthfeel plus delicate flavours and spiciness that tease the palate into thinking that summer is just around the corner! Well done to the K1 team! http://www.k1.com.au/tasting/gruner-veltliner.asp

 

 

For more information on Gruner Veltliner in the Adelaide Hills, click here: http://bit.ly/ilfxBa

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Two Austrian Gruner Veltliners

Posted on July 31, 2011 by larry
 

Today was the perfect day for pruning the Gruner Veltliner! Not a cloud in the sky and a

Pruning Gruner Veltliner

Larry pruning the Gruner

gentle tickle of sunlight – hints of the coming springtime. But it can’t be all work and no play, so we planned to celebrate at the end of the day by pulling two corks from a couple of special wines that we have been saving for a tasting.
 What were we celebrating? Well, firstly, we’ve had one great day of pruning. And secondly, we have just returned from Sydney having collected a Top Gold in Class and Trophy that was awarded to our ‘Blueblood’ Blaufrankisch 2009 at the Australian Boutique Wine Awards.

Last posting was all about a tasting of three Gruner Veltliners, all of which were made in the lighter to medium-bodied style. These are wines that retain the freshness and natural zest of this wonderful Austrian grape variety and represent a style that is pure, refreshing and food-friendly. It is, in fact, the style in which our ‘GRU’ Gruner Veltliner has been made.

Today’s posting has been dedicated to a completely different style of Gruner – the full-bodied, riper and more opulent style that is also commonly made from this very versatile grape variety.
Here the grapes are usually harvested at a full-ripe stage, often from older vines, and then made into wine with processes that add additional body, texture and mouth-feel. All in all, a much fuller style than the classic fresh style.

Franz Hirtzberger Gruner Veltliner

Franz Hirtzberger Gruner Veltliner

Franz Hirtzberger – Spitz Smaragd 2008 – 13% alcohol – cork closure.

Larry: Vibrant lemony-green colour with pungent earthy, nutty, butterscotch nose, infused with caramelised citrus and white pepper. Complex but so fresh that it gets you salivating even before the first sip. Full yet vibrant on the palate with tropical fruits, lashings of white pepper and wonderful mid-palate texture. Great length.   

Marc: The term ‘Smaragd’ takes its name from the small green lizard that suns itself in the terraced vineyards of the Wachau. Wines classified as ‘Smaragd’ are picked late and, like their namesake, spend time luxuriously absorbing the sun’s rays. These wines are the speciality of the Wachau – full-bodied (with a minimum of 12.5% alcohol and reaching up to 14% or more), richly flavoured and often unashamedly opulent.
Franz Hirtzberger is one of the Wachau’s oldest and most established families of wine, and this 2008 Gruner Veltliner from their vineyards at Spitz alongside the Danube is still as fresh as the day it was bottled three years ago.
A fine filigree of grapefruit and melon fruit runs like a spine through this supremely elegant wine, with nutty, spicy components adding further depth and complexity.
The wine received minimal intervention from the winemaker, so one is literally tasting the intensive care given to the vines. According to the Hirtzbergers, each vine is visited at least 100 times during the course of the growing season which means that, by the time it’s harvest, those sun-baking green lizards must seem like old friends.

Brundlmayer Gruner Veltliner

Brundlmayer Gruner Veltliner

Weingut Brundlmayer – Alte Reben 2008 Kamptal Reserve – 13.5% alcohol – cork seal.

Larry: Bright golden green colour.  Quite austere on the nose with delicate peppered radish. Palate clean and fresh, yet at the same time wonderfully unctuous. Loads of white pepper, hints of tobacco and grapefruit – but a bit overly textural on the back palate. 

Marc: The Kamptal wine region – about an hour’s drive west of Vienna – has its own classification system and its full-bodied Gruner Veltliners are labelled ‘Reserve’, with an alcohol volume of 13% or more. The Brundlmayer family is undoubtedly the most esteemed in the region having achieved an international reputation – in fact, one wine critic describes their brand as embodying the ‘stradivarius of wines’.
This Gruner Veltliner is produced from select parcels of fruit from their low-yielding vines aged over 50 years, which have been farmed in an eco-friendly manner with organic fertilisers and no synthetic herbicides applied. The vines are trellised close to the ground to benefit from the soil’s warming influence.
The Brundlmayer winemaking philosophy is one of restraint, which this wine reflects perfectly – I loved its sumptuous yet nuanced approach, redolent of citrus and pineapple notes, finishing with a distinctly creamy yet grippy texture. Music in a bottle!

For pre-release allocations of our GRU 2011, and further information, please go to http://bit.ly/ilfxBa

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Three Austrian Gruner Veltliners

Posted on June 30, 2011 by larry

   

The latest update on the Hahndorf Hill ‘GRU’ Gruner Veltliner 2011 is that it is being stabilised in tank and will be ready for botting towards the end of July. This is right on target for the planned October release of this, our second GRU vintage. Already pre-orders are being taken – you can confirm your six-bottle order by phoning the cellar door during office hours on 08 8388 7512, or email me at Larry@hahndorfhillwinery.com.au

With this exciting new release in mind, Marc and I decided to make tonight International Gruner Night – and to celebrate, three Austrian versions were cracked open for our pleasure.  All three wines are available at East End Cellars, 22-26 Vardon Ave, Adelaide.

Here are our respective tasting notes:   

 

Weingut Knoll, Loibner Gruner Veltliner, Federspiel 2008

 

Weingut Knoll, Loibner Gruner Veltliner, Federspiel 2008 – 11.5 % alcohol

Larry: Nose bursting with white pepper, candied orange peel and tobacco. Fresh and vibrant in the mouth with wonderful mid-palate texture and a long peppery, citrus tail.

Marc: If you kept one eye closed you might think this wine label depicts a chap on a Mardi Gras float trying to channel Botticelli’s Venus on her clam shell … except that it’s actually a portrait of St. Urban, the patron saint of vignerons. And if truth be told, there’s nothing flamboyant about this wine – it’s sleek and understated yet is more substantial than its alcohol level suggests. It hails from a highly reputable family winery based in the delightful village of Unterloiben alongside the Danube in the Wachau (aaah, I remember those impossibly laden apricot trees basking in the summer sun there). Blue-ribbon Gruner at its best. 

Mac Forbes Gruner Veltliner 2009

 

Mac Forbes Gruner Veltliner 2009 – 12% alcohol

Larry: Citrus and fresh melon on the nose, with a tumble of citrus and spice on a well-rounded, yet fresh and zesty palate. Some texture on the back palate.

Marc:  The highly talented Mac Forbes is one of the young guns of the Victorian wine industry and the grapes for this Gruner come from the Carnuntum region in Austria where he’s worked as a consultant flying winemaker. It’s crisp and minerally with lychees and pears reverberating and everything in terrific balance. Hip label too. This coming spring Mac will be planting Gruner in his own vineyard in the Strathbogies Ranges … bet he can’t wait. 

 
  

Hesketh Perfect Stranger Krems Gruner Veltliner 2009

 

Hesketh Perfect Stranger Krems Gruner Veltliner 2009 – 13% alcohol

Larry: Orange peel, caramelised parsnip, radish and herbs on nose through to palate, with lively, fresh acidity.

Marc: This wine is a joint venture between the Australian Hesketh family and Austrian wine legend Bert Salomon, and I absolutely love its label. It captivated me as I sipped the wine. It features a whimsical painting by Georgina Hart and shows a man and a woman connecting over a bottle of what I choose to interpret as being a Gruner. But will they make out? And are they really strangers to each other? These conundrums aside, the wine is as lovely as the painting – crisp but layered and disarmingly seductive.

Remember, every night can be International Gruner Night – all you need is a good bottle. Cheers!

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Sneak peek of GRU’s sibling – ‘Blueblood’

Posted on May 28, 2011 by larry

The red Austrian grape, Blaufrankisch, is the sibling to the Austrian white variety, Gruner Veltliner … and here at Hahndorf Hill we produce a delicious example of “Blau”.

The variety derives its name from the fact that in medieval times it was celebrated as the “blue grape of the Franks” and historical accounts relate how it was the reputed favourite tipple of the Frankish kings. The variety is also grown in southern Germany where it is known as Limberger, as well as in Hungary where it is called Kekfrankos and forms an essential component of the iconic Bulls Blood cuvée.

Blaufrankisch under bird nets before harvest.

The 2008 vintage of HHW Blaufrankisch wine was the first production of this variety in Australia and we were honoured to receive several awards including two gold medals and a trophy.  Our 2009 Blueblood Blaufrankisch is due to be released in late July at the Adelaide Hills Winter Reds festival, but in the meantime we have begun releasing it to the wine critics.

Here is what James Halliday had to say about our 2009 vintage in ‘The Weekend Australian Magazine’.

“Blaufrankisch is one of Austria’s most widely planted grapes, known for its colour, tannin and raciness born of its high acidity. DNA suggests one of its parents is Gouais Blanc, which makes it a half-brother of Shiraz. Brightly coloured, some spicy morello cherry aromas lead into a fleshy palate, with spice giving way to a more savoury background, the tannins not at all aggressive. Rating: 91 points.”

Philip White in ‘The Independent Weekly’ rated our 2009 Blueblood 94 points and described it as “zippy and lively … it’s reflective of its place, which is a vineyard with ironstone …”  You can listen to Philip’s full review of this wine on his new wine video column by following the link  http://bit.ly/kVFGHW

Wine blogger WiningPom wrote of Blueblood: “Vividly aromatic, it starts with dark cherries, a Kirsch-like quality, chocolate coated licorice bullets, twigs, a slightly herbal quality with a touch of coffee grounds and vanillin complexity.” Check out his full review by following this link  http://bit.ly/imB8hQ

To register your interest in the limited release of the HHW Blaufrankisch 2009, please go to our website and sign up to become one of our Loyalty Program members. http://bit.ly/mACo8m


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Gruner in the tank!

Posted on April 30, 2011 by larry

Vintage 2011 has been long and challenging right across Australia – but Hahndorf Hill has been fortunate with the Gruner Veltliner harvest. A combination of strong, healthy vines and perhaps some natural resistance to Botrytis, culminated in a successful harvest on March 24th.

Larry and Gemma West with Gruner 2011 in hand.

The juice has now been fully fermented and talented young winemaker Gemma West and I are more than delighted with the results.

We can report that there are wonderful crunchy pear and apple aromas together with lightly peppered, caramelised parsnip and a twist of slaty minerality.  A truly complex and exciting wine!

This baby still has quite a while to go before being bottled and will be released in October this year.

For pre-release allocations and further information please go to http://bit.ly/ilfxBa

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Gruner harvest 2011

Posted on March 25, 2011 by larry

 

Vintage 2011 has proved to be particularly cool and unusually wet.  Despite this, we have just successfully harvested the Gruner Veltliner. It seems that the thick skin that this variety is endowed with has given it considerable protection against botrytis which has, this year, ravaged vineyards all over the state and beyond. Hand-harvesting also has its advantages as it is very easy to simply drop any fruit on the ground that has been damaged.

The grapes were picked into small 20kg baskets and have been chilled at zero C overnight. The great excitement is now to taste the free run juice when the fruit is pressed later today.

Marc with a handful of freshly picked Gruner

Once again, this vintage, we will be making our wine in the fresh, medium-bodied style without any wood aging or malo lactic fermentation. This is similar to the classic ‘Federspiel’ style of the Wachau wine region in Austria.We hope to release vintage 2011 by October this year. For more information about our wines please go to our web site www.hahndorfhillwinery.com.au

Posted in Adelaide Hills, Gruner Veltliner, wine | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Gruner gets nets …. and wings!

Posted on February 17, 2011 by larry

Hahndorf Hill Winery

It’s that time of the year again! The vineyard is moving slowly towards the harvest period and the grapes have at last entered the beginning of their ripening phase. This vintage, 2011, has been particularly cool so the ripening stages are at least three weeks later than last vintage.

Hahndorf Hill Vineyard covered in a snow-storm of bird netting.

As the grapes pick up colour and sugar, so too does the interest increase from the local birds and we are therefore forced to cover the entire vineyard with bird netting to protect the grapes. The placing out of the bird netting is a tedious, costly and labour intensive process – but it’s the best way to protect the grapes from our wily feathered friends, who are great grape connoisseurs!

Larry Jacobs in Gruner Veltliner block – recently bird netted.

The Gruner block has, of course, also been netted as the pic on the left shows. I must confess, it’s extremely exciting to walk through the Gruner block and watch how the plump little bunches turn from dark pea-green berries to translucent golden-green orbs as they slowly begin to develop flavour and sugar.

As the Gruner begins its ripening phase it was quite appropriate, yesterday, to conclude a rather historic event in the Adelaide Hills. On 16th February 2011 there was the first gathering of the Adelaide Hills Gruner Grower’s Group at the beautiful cellardoor of K1 Wines. The purpose of this gathering was to initiate a regional  collaborative approach towards the development of Gruner Veltliner in the Adelaide Hills.  Already the following Adelaide Hills producers have planted this exciting new variety:

Deviation Road Vineyard
Hahndorf Hill Winery
Henschke Wines
K1 Wines
Longview Vineyards
Mt Bera Wines
Nova Vita Wines
Pike & Joyce

I want to predict that the next few years are going to be extremely exciting as more local producers start to produce wine from this amazing and versatile variety.  Gruner Veltliner has found a new home in the Adelaide Hills!

To read more about our Gruner Veltliner go to our web site  www.hahndorfhillwinery.com.au

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New Gruner Veltliner in the Adelaide Hills, Australia

Posted on January 7, 2011 by larry

gruner veltliner hahndorf hill winery
New plantings at Hahndorf Hill Winery

Exciting things are happening at Hahndorf Hill Winery in the Adelaide Hills!

We’ve just extended our plantings of Gruner Veltliner and will continue to do so over the next 12 months, until we have fully planted our new 2.2 hectare vineyard block.

It’s amazing to think that four years ago, in 2006,  the original plant material arrived in Australia as three individual, dormant canes, each about 20cm long. They were airfreighted from Austria and transferred directly to the huge government-operated quarantine facility in Melbourne.  Here they were scrubbed and hot-water treated, poked and tested for a range of viral and other diseases.  After nearly three years and having passed all the tests, the plant material was given the ‘all clear’, and we were then given permission to propagate hundreds of little vines using tissue culture techniques at the Melbourne-based Primary Industries facility.

These tiny new ‘laboratory babies’  were initially grown on agar plates and then allowed to go dormant before being transferred to us in the Adelaide Hills in October 2009. The excitement of their arrival was immediately dampened by our shock and surprise when we saw how small the individual plants were. On average, they were about 5cm high and about as substantial as a blade of grass. Nonetheless, we persevered and planted out this batch of 3000 little vines. Because the plantlings were so tiny, we inserted a lolly stick next to each new vine to identify where it had been planted. After a few weeks, fresh, tiny buds started to appear and very soon we had a crop of growing mini-vines. The survival rate was surprisingly good under the circumstances – 87% – and is apparently due to the fact that tissue cultured vines tend to have strong root systems.

One year and much TLC later, we now have an established young vineyard. But this is not the only thing that we’re celebrating! There was sufficient growth in the new vineyard after the first season, so that in winter 2010 we were able to harvest several thousand cuttings. In close collaboration with the Adelaide Hills Vine Improvement (AHVI) group, new plants have since been propagated and have now been handed over to five other Adelaide Hills growers for planting. This exciting development is the culmination of our belief that the cool-climate Adelaide Hills, with its significant diurnal variation of temperature during the ripening season, will prove to be the perfect new home for Gruner in the Southern Hemisphere. It is for this reason we are delighted to share our plant material with other growers in the Hills and it’s now with great hope and joy that we celebrate the arrival and establishment of this northern stranger to the beautiful Adelaide Hills.

PS: It’s interesting to note that the vines seem to have settled down extremely well in their slate-rich, loamy-clay soils. Our first vintage - GRU 2010 - has remarkable minerality which undoubtedly has its source in this complex soil.

Click the link below to read more about our GRU 2010 – and other wines.

http://bit.ly/9eXoyM

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