Synopsis, Our Opinion: An excellent value Gruner Veltliner.
Producer/Winery: Weingut Barbara Öhlzelt; Eichelbergstraße, Austria.
Grape Variety: Grüner Veltliner.
Geographic Appellation,, Region, Country: Kamptal; Niederösterreich, Austria.
Vintage: 2019
Price: $17.10 1 Liter bottle (with a 10% mixed case discount)
Purchased From: The Caviste Wine Shop; Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Paired With: Thai chicken with rice and grilled zucchini.
Tasting:
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Chilled before drinking. Clear, oat straw color with an abundance of tiny bubbles. Quite pronounced ripe melon, Kieffer pear, lemon and lime aromas. Fresh, lively and a tiny bit off dry mouthfeel, medium body and a 150-grit texture. Light peppery spice, not quite ripe honeydew melon, tart Granny Smith apples, lemon and just a touch of arugula flavors all set behind a dusty mineral taste. Abundant acidity and a medium length bitter arugula and green herb tasting finish. Quite different Gruner Veltliner, light, zesty and flavorful with nice depth, but all this is somewhat squelched by the dusty mineral taste. In the end we called it an excellent value Gruner Veltliner.
We eat a lot of Thai, Indian and Asian dinners that are a tad spicy and Gruner Veltliner is a perfect pairing so were always on the lookout for a good, inexpensive Gruner in 1 liter bottles. In the past our favorite was Huber Gruner Veltliner; but we can’t get it anymore. This year our favorite was Waldschütz Handwerk Gruner Veltliner 2018, but again after buying two cases we were unable to get more and we tried the Leader. We did a side-by-side tasting tonight comparing the Leader with Handwerk and we found the Leader was not nearly as good paired with the food, but was a better sipping wine. The food brought out a real bitterness in the wine. The Handwerk on the other hand was more mellow, less acidic, a tad off dry and better with food, but not nearly as good a sipping wine. It should also be noted that of all the Gruner Veltliner in 1 liter bottles we’ve purchased, the Leader was considerably more expensive than any of the others. We’ll continue our search so watch for more Gruner Veltliner comparisons in the future.
Photo from Barbara Öhlzelt.
See our reviews of other Gruner Veltliner wines in 1 Liter bottles.
Alcohol Content: 12%
Closure: Screw cap.
UPC Code: Not available.
Imported by: Vom Boden; Brooklyn, New York.