2018 Schloss Gobelsburg Grüner Veltliner 1ÖTW Ried Renner- Austria, Niederösterreich, Kamptal (5/17/2021)
It’s sort of a Proustian moment. I open the Gobelsburg Grüner Veltliner Renner, and I immediately travel to the Monopol Hotel in Wroclaw, Poland. I spent a great deal of time there while on business travel, and came to know the names and faces of the staff. I also came to know the wine list of their two excellent restaurants, which featured an extensive line of Schloss Gobelsburg wines at excellent prices, close to US retail. I explored the full range, including bottlings that I could rarely find at home. It was a treasure trove.
Tonight it’s a flashback, and also a reminder of how much I love this particular bottling. It’s not the flashy Lamm, or the trendy Tradition. It’s just the standard for me in terms of non-trophy, single vineyard Grüner Veltliner. There’s richness and depth, and also brightness from ample acidity. It’s as comforting as a good dream, and just begs the next sip every time I put down the glass. It’s good memories, and a good evening tonight.
That’s a nice wine and I don’t even like Grüner all that much! But I think all of their Grüners are good, from the low end up, at least those I’ve had. In fact, I liked the basic wine enough that I went ahead and tried the higher-end bottlings. Liked all of them. Interesting wine to be drinking in Poland though.
The hotel had an interesting list. Gobelsburg was a key producer. The list was also very strong in Geoffroy Champagnes, Albert Mann of Alsace and Sottimano from Barbaresco. All were very well priced.
Why is this so weird to find in Poland? I would assume central European wines would be found in a place like Poland and if you look at the map, Lower Austria is probably the geographically closest major wine region to Wroclaw (it looks a bit closer than the Hungarian or German regions).