Pinotage
Even the name sounds fake. Like “Meritage”.
I’m with whoever mentioned muller thurgau. While gruner has never excited me, m-t is dreadfully boring.
Check out Tiefenbrunner’s “Fieldmarshal”. In a good year it demonstrates what Muller Thurgau can do.
I find Gruner to be a very versatile grape that can provide plenty of fun at ‘value prices’ as well as profound experiences in the hands of great producers and great vintages.
It has to be in the top 10. I have not been introduced to any of the higher tiered and more expensive offerings of this varietal, but for the ones available readily, for a wine with that much body, it is definitely short on “wow” factor. Around here it is pretty popular with the “drink it cold crowd” sometimes as a pool wine. I prefer less of that malic acid taste on my pool wines. One indication of it being boring is that when our favorite wine bar changed vintages about a month ago, no one noticed the difference.
Absolutely agree. Prager is top notch stuff. I like Gruner in general. I think it’s as interesting as Kabinett-level Reislings and ages well.
I think the most boring varietal on the planet is Pinot Grigio.
Ditto for me…Pinot Grigio and Pinot Blanc are the MOST boring. And, although I wouldn’t put it in the “most boring” category, too much Chenin and Sauvignon Blanc all taste the same. Most Chenin just tastes like the juice from canned fruit cocktail, with a little more or less sweetness (with some very notable exceptions, including some older bone dry versions I’ve had from Savennieres, which have shown a LOT more minerality than most Chenin).
With Keith here …
Still looking for more 1995 FX Pichler Kellerberg GV … epiphany wine.
F.X. Pichler, Knoll, Hirtzberger and many more …
As others have said at 10+ years they are remarkable.
However, given the prices for wine from the above producers those of us who enjoy it don’t want too many in the pool 
BTW, if your favorite white is Chablis it kinda makes sense that you don’t love Gruners.
They are quite different.
Pat
Afternoon all,
I popped a bottle of FX Pichler GruV ‘M’ 2000 (his muy expensivo prestige cuvee) a few weeks back, it was the proverbial ‘broken pencil’ of a wine - which is to say ‘pointless’. Even though its tiresome nature did make me want to stab myself in the eye with a pen in order to stay awake as I drank it and attempted to compose a note that consisted of more than a series of ellipses, GruV can be a bit less anodyne than some wines, especially, I feel, when young.
The most utterly soporific wine, which is incomprehensibly popular with ladies who lunch here in the big smoke (whilst in the trade I made shed loads for my company selling almost commendably vapid, wearisome and piss-boring examples to restaurants), has been mentioned: Pinot Grigio of the Italian idiom. I like many Alsace Pinot Gris, and some Pacific North-West examples have been good, but in a life intensely committed to winkling out and tasting as many wines as I possibly can without seeming too much of an objectionable freeloader I have had but a single Italian Pinot Grigio that I would be happy to drink more than once. One wine, poor hit rate, I rather fancy.
Cheers,
David.
This is nonsense!
Grüner Veltliner is a very noble grape - one can make great wines from it - or boring wines and everything in between - it depends on the vineyard/region and capability of the producer.
The best examples can rival any Grand Cru from Burgundy - and in fact already have in comparative tastings … but it´s like Chardonnay, there is everything in the market from mediocre to really great.
(enough fine recs here already …)
That bottle you’d opened a couple of years ago is still one of the greatest wines I’ve ever had.
Anyone wanting to try a good Pinot Grigio should check out Tiefenbrunner, as well. Perhaps not the most exciting wine, but Tiefenbrunner’s is excellent.
I love Gruner…especially Smaragds from the Wachau. I was lucky enough to attend Vie Vinum, a giant tasting held in Vienna put on by the Austrian wine board, last May. There are so many far from boring GV’s. I do tend to prefer Austrian Rieslings though.
While a properly cropped Muller Thurgau can definitely be interesting, the variety was mainly propagated for its ability to grow almost anywhere and its high yields. Not really a variety for which you should have high expectations.
Gruner on the other hand is incredibly complex and diverse, offering great QPR on the low end and some world-class wines on the high end. Plenty of room for different strokes subjective tastes, but I don’t think it’s hard to argue that it belongs right up there with the other ‘great varieties.’
More votes for Muller-Thurgau and Pinot Grigio although I have encountered at least a couple Pinot Gris I liked–one was from Carr Vineyards in Santa Barbara County and the Clos Windsbuhl can be quite spectacular. I used to think I didn’t like GruVe wines but that has changed. How about Vinho Verde in Portugal–do others find that boring? But it has its purposes in cooling down the impact of highly spiced cuisine. Most Soave bore me.
+1
Lots of boring GV out there, no doubt. But the few examples I’ve tasted from Pichler have been amazing.
An '00 Pichler Riesling Steinertal I tried recently was dead. My guess is it’s a vintage issue. Everything else I’ve tried from Pichler, both GruV and Riesling, from the early '90s to '09, has been outstanding if not monumental.
This