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Steininger

Inspired by a holiday in Champagne, Karl Steininger and his wife Brigitta, who comes from a wine-growing family in Zöbing, began focusing on traditional method sparkling wines in 1989, after having already in 1980 begun transforming his family’s mixed farm and its then-tiny vine acreage into a wine estate. Daughter Eva and her husband Peter now complete the team, which farms 50 hectares spread out around Langenlois, the dominant site for sparkling base wines being Wechselberg. The Steiningers have become increasingly ambitious in terms of both fruit quality and élevage, and after branching into numerous and at times unusual mono-cépage sparklers, they have adopted a project of single-vineyard sparkling wines that debuted auspiciously in 2011 with a 2008 Riesling Heiligenstein. Finishing sweetness for the range of sparkling wines here tends to hover around four or five grams per liter and proves consistently supportive without being expressly evident. Each year the estate is adding another large acacia cask to supplement what was long a reliance on stainless steel. The still wines here can also be impressive, as my too-brief recent tasting session with the Steiningers reminded me.

I have only twice tasted a Steininger sparkling wine more than a couple of years after disgorgement--which takes place on request or as required, the date thereof always being indicated on the label--and then only of their Heiligenstein Riesling. So I am for now simply making an educated guess as to how various cuvées might hold up in bottle.

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

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2013 Burgunder Brut

Release Price: $27

Color: Sparkling White

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