Gruner Veltliner Im Weingebirge Smaragd 2009 75cl

The Nikolaihof 2009 Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Im Weingebirge evinces wet stone and alkaline mineral notes already in the nose, along with floral and herbal allusions. On a polished palate, pear and succulent cranshaw melon pull this analytically dry wine in a sweet direction, while nut oils and hints of pepper - along with the aforementioned herbal and mineral elements - serve for deliciously fascinating counterpoint in a long, profoundly yet refreshingly stimulating finish. This should perform superbly for at least the next 15 years. It will come as no surprise by now to learn that once again in 2010, the Saahs family began picking well ahead of any other Austrian growers of Riesling and Gruner Veltliner of whom I am aware; nor that they attribute their having been able to begin already in mid-September (!) to the rigorously biodynamic regimen that they have followed since long before all but a handful of wine lovers much less wine growers even knew to what the word -biodynamic- referred. It did surprise me when Nikolaus Saahs described this year's crop level as "nearly normal," but then, absence of botrytis in this vintage no doubt accounts for a significant enhancement of total juice. Extended lees contact and in some instances, it seems, malo-lactic transformation helped tame the acids, which are analytically lower in the finished wines I tasted than in most other Danubian Austrian whites of the 2010 vintage. (A subsequent report on other Nikolaihof wines tasted over the past several years but prior to this June will among other things account for a couple of revelatory recent releases in their "Vinothek" series of wines bottled after many years in cask.)