2015 Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Achleiten Wachstum Bodenstein

Toni Bodenstein’s concern in 2015 for acid retention and rot avoidance led to what he deemed an early harvest by estate standards, commencing at the beginning of October and concluding by month's end. With one exception, the wines finished below 14 percent alcohol. “In late July, we couldn’t irrigate, because the water source for irrigation in Weissenkirchen is so near the spring that supplies our drinking water,” explained Bodenstein. “The vines suffered incredibly from the midsummer heat and drought, especially in the marble Steinriegl.” Yet, ironically, by the end of September, it was fear of rot that led him to begin picking the lower-elevation vines on that very site. In 2015, Bodenstein vinified Grüner Veltliner from nine terraces in the Zwerithaler newly acquired from a retiring octogenarian who had been renting them and mostly selling in bulk to the co-op. These terraces and vines represent a remarkable find: the so-called Kammergut of famed Melk Monastery’s abbot, at whose bequest, in the wake of phylloxera, the retiring grower's grandfather had planted them sometime before 1914. The vines were certainly among Austria’s first and might now be its oldest on American rootstock. More significantly, those now gnarled vines testify to highly distinctive genetics by their very small clusters, without shoulders or tails, that ripen to a transparent, luminous gold. Bodenstein, who can hardly believe that as Weissenkirchen's long-time major and foremost grower he knew nothing of these terraces, their history and their vines until 2014, is already making plans to propagate them. This is another among that minority of estates where Grüner Veltliner appears to have outperformed Riesling in 2015. But considering the advantages conferred by the unique genetics not only of these newly showcased Zwerithaler terraces but also of Bodenstein’s Achleiten Stockkultur, which in turn contribute to the incredible genetic diversity of his “Wachstum Toni Bodenstein” parcel, one could argue that at this address, despite the long-standing renown and flagship status of its Riesling, the deck is currently stacked in Grüner Veltliner’s favor.