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Weingut Jutta Ambrositsch

A native of southern Burgenland who cut her winemaking teeth in the vineyards and cellar of her friend Uwe Schiefer, Jutta Kalchbrenner (née Ambrositsch) rendered a minuscule bottling of 2005 Blaufränkisch Eisenberg that continues to drink sensationally. But once this graphic designer-turned-vintner acquired her first rented vines in Vienna, she turned her back on red wine and quickly established herself as an author of memorably complex Grüner Veltliners, Rieslings and Gemischte Sätze.

Meticulous, sensitive, hands-on personal management of her vines makes her pursuit of quality incredibly labor-intensive. Yet she has expanded steadily, if selectively, when and where old vines and promising sites became available. In one instance, she doesn’t even have a contract or know who owns the vines. On a handshake, an agent tasked with eventually selling the property agreed she could have the fruit provided she took care of the vines!

Her initial foray onto the Danube’s Left Bank at the foot of the Bisamberg in 2011 has recently been followed by her first new plantings anywhere, undertaken in the adjacent Unteren Jungenberg with Grüner Veltliner of Jamek origins. Due to this expansion, rented facilities within the city limits had become problematic. Ambrositsch solved that problem definitively last year by purchasing an entire estate in Gumpoldskirchen (part of the Thermenregion) just south of Vienna, replete with a deep and spacious cellar full of old and well-maintained casks. At 3.7 hectares, this acquisition nearly doubles her total acreage of vines.

Unhappy with various aspects of the newly defined category DAC Wiener Gemischter Satz (which I’ll engage on some other occasion), Ambrositsch has begun bottling her field blends as officially just Landwein. Her approach has turned since 2012 toward earlier harvesting at slightly higher yields (provided prevalent hail spares her vines) so as to achieve lower finished alcohol levels. Any suspicion that this might entail a sacrifice in flavor concentration, character or complexity has been banished by wines worthy to set alongside any of Austria’s best. One can only guess at the ultimate bottle potential of the sometimes extraordinary libations now issuing from her vines and hands, given that there is not even a decade of Ambrositsch wine by which to judge and that her learning curve during that brief period has been so steep.

From 2013: A Great Vintage for Austrian Riesling and Grüner Veltliner (Nov 2015) by David Schildknecht

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2013 Grüner Veltliner Satellite

Release Price: $33

Color: White

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