HM Lang | Krems | Grüner Veltliner Riede Braunsdorfer “Fuchs & Dachs” | 2018 | 750ml

Description

Product description for HM Lang Grüner Veltliner Riede Braunsdorfer “Fuchs & Dachs” 2018

Information about the wine

The Grüner Veltliner grows in the Steiner Braunsdorfer vineyard in a tributary of the Danube, with four to five meters of loess soil on bare rock. The site is very steep, with the vines growing on small terraces around four to five meters deep. They are around 50 years old and have been cultivated by the Langs for four years, converting to Demeter certification. The vines have a 2.4 meter high canopy. The site is located at around 250 meters above sea level. This wine also includes a small proportion of 90-year-old Steiner Schreck vines, which are largely used for the GV Dritte Akt (Third Act). The name comes from the fact that badgers have their dens in the loess soil in this vineyard. In cold winters, foxes often come by and lie down with the badgers until it warms up again. The harvest took place on August 31st, around 70 days after flowering, making it earlier than ever before. However, the grapes were physiologically ripe, and Markus Lang harvested at a pH of 3.0. This early harvest resulted in an alcohol content of only 11.5% vol. The vine was pressed extremely slowly over two days on a self-designed 100-ton wooden press. The pressing process itself is completely reductive, but afterward the juice is given time to brown, meaning it is deliberately exposed to oxidation. The juice ferments spontaneously and matures on the full lees in large Stockinger wooden barrels for two years. It was filled unfiltered in November 2020 at a pH of 3.2. During fermentation, Lang adds 3 to 5% destemmed grapes, which ferment intercellularly (as in carbonic maceration), thus continually re-energizing the fermentation process despite the constant 9°C in the cellar. Later, the wine is minimally sulfurized. The Fuchs und Dachs was the first wine to be used in the Stockinger barrel used.

Colour

Medium straw yellow

Nose

The glass exudes a highly elegant aroma, especially if you treat the Fuchs und Dachs to a Burgundy glass and thus give it plenty of air. Decanting it doesn’t hurt either. What flows from the glass has little to do with a classic view of Grüner Veltliner. Here, the grape variety combines – even if it is so often used as a comparison and one might be a little tired of it – with a finesse and elegance, clarity and subtlety that one knows from cool vineyards in Burgundy. It is the aroma that already masterfully blends the use of wood and precise fruit, yeast and spice. And it is precisely the spice that can sometimes get a little out of hand with Grüner Veltliners that is wonderfully captured here. White-fleshed fruit, ripe but crisp, combines with grapefruit and lemon, herbs and stone, with pear cream and a touch of brioche, oak and a hint of the finest vanilla, along with an ethereal touch of mint.

Palate

On the palate, the wine initially appears wonderfully creamy and smooth, the acidity ripe but vital. The long lees aging makes this Grüner Veltliner very elegant and silky. At the same time, the wine possesses a cool, vibrant, gripping, and mineral component. The wine has body and power, but remains austere and sinewy in a positive sense, something rarely found on the palate with this variety. The first aging ensures a clear oak imprint, which, however, integrates very nicely in the loess-Veltliner. Here again, one can clearly say: This is a highly distinctive, extremely complex wine that, despite the early harvest, lacks nothing if you appreciate the lean yet complex, firm, and energetic style. There’s a clear concept behind this style, and it changes the perspective on the grape variety without distorting it.

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