Grüner Veltliner – international perspective

I know that I’m gonna regret this post, sooner or later.

I always wondered how could possibly professional wine writers/critics/bloggers stay objective without being biased by their personal taste. As one can’t like the Sex Pistols and Mozart the same way, I can’t imagine how anyone could fall in love with a Sauvignon Blanc and a Chardonnay, in the same time. I must admit that Grüner Veltliner has always been my Mozart and I kept underscoring Grüner Veltliner wines until I realized that I’d been always searching something else in it whilst I didn’t appreciate its strengths. Well, at least not appreciating enough. And I’m afraid I still don’t but by now I’m at least confident enough to write and publish my notes and thoughts about Grüner Veltliner. About the choice, I got the Monarchia Grüner Veltliner from a UPC employee, apparently less fun of wines than myself (UPC employees get Monarchia wines as Xmas gift on a regular basis, since UPC central Europe’s executive actually owns Monarchia winery) and I bought the Domane Wachau Grüner Veltliner Smaragd when I was in Wien chasing some good Wachau Rieslings and other stuff from that corner of the Danube. So here’s my finding.

Monarchia – Grüner Veltliner, 2006

As you would expect, I almost thrown out the whole bottle after the first sip, yep the old reflexes had been working  yet.

Rather deep golden color. I sensed mostly sulphites on the nose with some elusive unpleasant undertone. On the palate apple note is fighting the sulphites’ heavy cavalry, or something alike, supported by an unpleasant bitterness. I would not venture to call it acidity although the wine’s structure’s not as bad as it seems. And it has a body. It1s just that the body is very ugly to my taste.

Score: 3+

Price: about HUF 1 500

Domane Wachau – Grüner Veltliner, Achleiten, Smaragd, 2006

Pale, shiny golden color with zillions of tiny bubbles. The wine has a very pleasant nose, although difficult to describe. Vinious and resembles most the Hungarian Traubi soda with early spring floral undertones and at some point, stick of celery. Not overly intense and light bouquet.

On the palate the same vinious-Traubi soda elements play a key role besides the long bitterness. The typical Grüner Veltliner character is made more pleasant by its elegance, compared to the Monarchia wine. I like especially the start, but then this character with its gooseberry aroma isn’t convincing enough for me.

The most positive about the wine is the structure. This, and its elegance make it more attractive to me than Monarchia’s Grüner Veltliner from 2006.

Score: 5

Price: EUR 16

I know that one day I’ll become a fan of Grüner veltliner. But not just yet.