2016 Grüner Veltliner Engelberg

Ludwig Neumayer suffered some loss in his Riesling from the fungal disruption of flowering, but on the whole he ended up with a normal-sized crop thanks in part to an especially intensive regimen of sprayings against peronospora. “We didn’t have to start harvesting in 2016 until September 26,” he related, “and even then it was just for cleaning out [putzen]” of imperfect clusters, with the real action occupying the full month of October and the first week of November. And despite the somewhat reduced Riesling crop, that variety was as usual picked last. In consequence of this approach, Neumayer’s grapes suffered no lack of hang time or of exposure to chilly temperatures – with results only occasionally less fine than his account of harvest circumstances or my long experience with this estate had led me to hope. The lower-echelon Grüner Veltliner are higher in alcohol than is often the case at this address; on the other hand, Neumayer’s vineyard-specific 2016 vintage Grüner Veltliner bottlings top out at not much over 13%, reflecting in part the tendency this year for must weights to move only sluggishly in October while flavor development proceeded apace. He operated with his usual levels of pre-fermentative skin contact, and noted that the juice from gentle pressing clarified so rapidly and well that he largely dispensed with bentonite fining. (For details concerning this estate’s vineyards, practices and recent history, readers are invited to consult the extended introduction to my report on its 2013s.)