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Weinberghof Fritsch

Twenty-four of the Karl Fritsches’ 26 hectares were savagely hailed on in the small hours of May 16, every bit of young foliage being stripped from the vines in some places. Yet, like those of other Wagram vintners, the plants staged a remarkable recovery, and the eventual harvest – while weighing in at little more than half of a normal crop – was anything but problematic qualitatively speaking. “Precisely because there was so little fruit to burden them,” related Karl Fritsch junior, “our vines didn’t shut down during the hot, dry summer.” Single-vineyard Grüner Veltliner was already being picked in the fourth week of September – it was all over by October 7, the earliest conclusion of harvest in estate history – and the ripe flavors captured in this Fritsch collection are accompanied by extremely modest alcohol. One certainly doesn’t want to wish a repeat of May’s hail horrors or the fiscal year’s red-ink bottom line on this family, but how could one fail to hope that they will render future collections as impressive as that of 2015? The estate’s trio of generic Grüner Veltliner cuvées reflects in 2015 the inclusion of purchased fruit, which served to further moderate the overall slump in production occasioned by the hailstorm. And to say that the two of those generic bottlings that I tasted (I couldn’t pry a bottle of “Windspiel” from the estate) did not suffer from failing to qualify as estate-bottled would be an extreme understatement. The last vintage of Fritsch Riesling Kapuzinerberg, incidentally, has turned out to be the 2014 that I reviewed in my last report. Karl Fritsch junior could not come to an understanding with the proprietor from whom he contracted for the fruit of that Kremstal satellite vineyard to make the changes deemed necessary to farm it organically. Organic (and eventually biodynamic) viticulture is a principle on which Fritsch told me he has decided to cease compromising, even if that means slightly fewer Fritsch wines get produced. On top of this estate’s long-standing biodynamic regimen (wine-by-wine details of which can be found on their website), Karl Fritsch junior is convinced that his recent conversion to “gentle pruning” (which I described in my introduction to the 2013s from Jurtschitsch) has already paid tasteable dividends, as well as offered protection from vine diseases. (For further details concerning this estate’s vineyards, practices and recent history, readers are invited to consult the extended introduction to my report on its 2013s.)

From Austria’s 2015 Rieslings & Grüner Veltliners: Ripe & Ready (Feb 2017) by David Schildknecht

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2015 Grüner Veltliner Donaulöss

Release Price: $9

Color: White

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