Thursday Vinopolpick- December 12th

December 12, 2013

The small town of Wachau, Austria surrounded by etched hillside vineyards*
                                                                 

 A small region that usually accounts for only around 3% of Austria’s wine production, Wachau has remained one of Austria’s most established and notable wine regions for generation. Viticulture in Wachau is thought to have been introduced by Celtic tribes and continued in the 1st Century BC by Romans. The most important influence, however, came from the Bavarian monks who built the steep, terraced vineyards along the Danube riverside in the Middle Ages. Located in Lower Austria, the wine district’s rolling vineyards produce complex white wines. With vineyards on either side of the Danube (Donau) and a dramatic patchwork of terraces hewn out of the granite, gneiss and mica, there are few regions in the world that can rival Wachau’s beauty. The effects of the hot, dry summer and the harsh winter are evened out by the influence of the river Danube, and cool evening breezes from the more north daily temperatures during the important months prior to the harvest, allowing the fine and precise aromatics of the grapes to develop. This character often gives the wine a cool fruit flavour with subtle tropical fruit notes, ranging from the lean, light-bodied Steinfeder, through the lean-structured Federspiel and the rich style of the Smaragd.Specializing in dry wines made from Riesling and Grüner Veltliner, some of the best Austrian wines are produced from this historic area. The Vinea Wachau, an organization of Wachau producers who united in 1983, came together not only to promote Wachau wines worldwide but also to protect the image and integrity of the Wachau wine region. While most of Austria follows a wine classification system based on ripeness that parallels the German system, Wachau wines have unique classification and labeling established by the Vineau Wachau. This system includes three levels: Steinfeder, a lighter wine of up to 11.5% alcohol level, Federspiel, made from slightly riper grapes, is for wines between 11.5–12.5% ABV, and Smaragd, the most full bodied and age-worthy, that must have a minimum of 12.5% alcohol level. Today, over 85% of Wachau’s producers belong to this organization, following the strict guidelines set not only by Austria but also the Vinea Wachau. including Weingut Nikolaihof. 

Weingut Nikolaihof is one of the oldest wine estates in Austria and Wachau, whose history goes back almost 2000 years to the Roman empire. Originally chosen by the Romans because it was considered a Celtic holy site prior to 800 B.C., the foundations of the current house date to a Roman tower which existed as early as 63 B.C.  Germanic monks obtained the estate during the collapse of Rome, and the first written evidence of winemaking comes from 470 A.D, with the monks documenting their ownership of the vineyard ‘Im Weingebirge’, the earliest named vineyard site in all of Europe.

In 1894, the Saahs family took over the estate and carried on the traditions the monks had established, originally intending the house to be a country retreat. The family have been farming and making wine from the 22 ha of land ever since, increasing their focus on wine in 1960 when Klaus Saahs inherited the winery from his father. With husband-wife team Klaus and Christine at the helm, Weingut Nikolaihof began practicing Bio-dynamics in 1971, making them one of the first and longest practicing Bio-dynamic wineries in Europe, and the world.  In 1985, both Christine and Klaus retired from winemaking duties, passing the reins to their son Nikolaus. Nikolaus, who studied winemaking for three years at Germany’s famous Geisenheim University, continues to refine the winemaking traditions at the estate.Not entirely content to simply inherit a set of traditions, Nikolaus has been bringing his own ideas to the operation, including most notably the refurbishment and use of the estate’s 400-year old wine press. Made from one massive elm tree, this incredible museum piece is the largest, let alone the largest operational, wine press of its kind in Austria.

Nikolaihof still functions as an independent, bio-diverse farm, growing herbs and fruits, even using seeds for grapeseed oil, and a well-maintained vineyard. The average age of the vines at the estate are 48 years old and, as one might expect for practitioners of biodynamics, winemaking is done under fairly rustic conditions. All of their wines are naturally fermented with indigenous yeasts and minimal additional sulfur, in Austrian oak vessels, deep in the cold, 700-year-old cellar. There are many things that make the wines of Nikolaihof unique, from the persistent use of large, ancient oak casks, to eschewing fining and filtration whenever possible. All of this work is done to produce wines that are natureal expressions of the grape and aim to preserve the long traditions established at the same estate over 1500 years ago. In their youth the Nikolaihof wines are tight and reticent, showing bright, mineralic flavours with good acidity. In recent years, Weingut Nikolaihof has been releasing small amounts of old, bottle-aged library wines called Vinothek, as well as recently bottled Rieslings that have aged in old casks for several years, Steinrieslers. These library release wines are a perfect example that these wines greatly repay cellaring, producing wines with sublime purity and balance. 

Nikolaihof Gruner Veltliner Vinothek 1993 ($149.95) $99 special 4 bottles left
Terry Theise notes “By now you know this singular estate has been holding certain wines back, in cask and without sulfur, until they are deemed ready to bottle. There have been Rieslings (the supernal 1990) and GrüVes (the amazing ‘91), and now this. The 1993 in the glass was bottled in early April 2008, directly from the cask in which it lay since fermentation. It begins by tasting woody, and then becomes roasty and protein-y and fatty, like the cracklings of a suckling-pig roast. It then gets leafy and the teensiest bit root-y, like celeriac; a full year in bottle has actually made it fresher and fruitier, albeit with its Jurasienne touch. (If it were Jura it would be the best wine ever made there.) The secret-sweetness and the woodsy patina are just ravishing. It’s settled into its new home and has started to glow.I asked if there was a candidate for the next Vinothek bottling. “Actually there are several,” they replied. “But we want to surprise you.” Good: I like surprises.”Nikolaihof Gruner Veltliner Weinberge Smaragd 1999 ($149.95) $119 special 1 bottle left

Nikolaihof Gruner Veltliner Weinberge Smaragd 2010 ($69.95) $59 special 7 bottles left
Terry Theise notes “Their non-vinificationvinification removes all trace of severity from 2010; it’s like a complex deciduous forest on a warm rainy day, the scent of the leaves and the dripping bark. The finish is haunting and poetic. It’s deep and sweet and will be amazingly complex in 4-6 years.I should emphasize, I don’t need to or want to summon any kind of spell when I’m tasting here. I try instead to erase my screen and then transcribe whatever takes place. I mean, the wines are how they are, and I seem to feel my only authentic response is directly into image and metaphor. And the tasting itself is quite workmanlike; 4-5 glasses are lined up and the wines poured into flights, just like anywhere else. And then they start to peal, and the usual deconstruction of flavors just isn’t called for. Better to fall into the aura of the pealing, to hear the complicated overtones, to feel the air between the wine and me. That’s what seems to work. + +”

Nikolaihof Gruner Veltliner Weingebirge Smaragd 2011 ($64.95) $55 special 12 bottles left
Terry Theise notes “Delicate and soulful. Not a flashy first impression. 12.6% alc. Pea shoot and vetiver and a curious tickle of tannin; a careful beautiful wine with nothing to prove. Again a stirringly mineral finish.I should emphasize, I don’t need to or want to summon any kind of spell when I’m tasting here. I try instead to erase my screen and then transcribe whatever takes place. I mean, the wines are how they are, and I seem to feel my only authentic response is directly into image and metaphor. And the tasting itself is quite workmanlike; 4-5 glasses are lined up and the wines poured into flights, just like anywhere else. And then they start to peal, and the usual deconstruction of flavors just isn’t called for. Better to fall into the aura of the pealing, to hear the complicated overtones, to feel the air between the wine and me. That’s what seems to work.”

Nikolaihof Gruner Veltliner Weingebirge Federspiel 2012 ($34.94)
$27 special 22 bottles left
Terry Theise notes “Markedly lissome and chiseled, slate-blue eyes and high cheekbones; even a little phenolic and certainly mineral, especially for this estate. The finish is clipped but the alc is below 12%, and the clarity and oyster grip is almost more typical for Hefeabzug.”

Nikolaihof Riesling Vinothek Wachau 1995 ($179.95) $149 special 2+ cases left
Terry Theise notes “It’s just 12.5% alcohol. This tender wine has been alone so long, it’s almost forgotten how to speak in language—so it sings. All it does is sing. You want to speak of its noble oxidation but you get caught in the sultry web of its amazing floweriness and pure vetiver. It actually, after all these years in cask, needs oxygen. Your sensual-analytical skills don’t help you here. Put them away. Quiet down, all the way down. You can enter the house, they’ve left the door unlocked. But once inside, the rooms are dim. You find your way by an instinct you didn’t know you had. You listen as you never did before. And you are given back to yourself, a strange new person, swimming in beauty and as supple as a child, pensive
and amazed.”

Nikolaihof Riesling Steinriesler 1998 ($84.95) $69 special 14 bottles left
Terry Theise notes “Riesler” is an archaic term for Riesling. Saahs wanted to see how a wine might age in cask without sulfur if it were an ordinary and not a grand wine to begin with. The first example was a glorious 1999, offered two years ago. So what do they do for an encore? Offer something even older. This is a masterpiece of time, nature and instinct. Less “humble” than that ‘99 was, and more insanely, dauntingly complex. I could detail its three paragraphs worth of nuance if I had 40 minutes to study it. Let’s just say, a perfect positive oxidation, a whole encyclopedia of wild flowers and herbs, a mélange of every possible salt, and the gentlest note of allspice and pink peppercorn.”

Nikolaihof Riesling Weingebirge Jungfernlese 1999 ($109.95) $89 special 5 bottles left
Nikolaihof Riesling Vom Stein Jungfernlese 2006 ($59.95) $49 special 2 cases left
Terry Theise notes “It means the virgin-vintage, the first crop from young vines. And it’s what the Germans would call Feinherb, and it’s what any sane person would call irresistible! A potion of iris and lavender, spicy and penetrating; very long, seductively earthy, like a really profound Nahe Spätlese, almost the 5-spice and wildflower of Dönnhoff’s Felsenberg.”

Nikolaihof Riesling Steiner Hund Reserve 2008 ($79.95) $66 special 18 bottles left
Terry Theise notes “This vineyard is existentially unique, as if it had its own magnetic fields. Druids would have built their megaliths there. Maybe at night a UFO lands silently and all the little space dudes get out and do some magic, I don’t know. But I know of no other great wine that seems so unknowable, overwhelming and haunting. For a Nikolaihof ‘08 this is markedly ripe (13%), and it shows a lot of counterpoint between its druidic exotics and Chartreuse-y herbalness, versus its jasmine and white chocolate yang side. Potentially great, it’s still busy working through its contradictions. The implosion of minerality may eventually mediate among them. A superb and complicated Riesling. + +”

Nikolaihof Riesling Vom Stein Smaragd 2009 ($69.95) $59 special 12 bottles left
Terry Theise notes “As ‘09 is, this shows chamomile and beeswax, but as ‘09 rarely is, this is taut and grippy, and maybe still too young. There’s a grassy herbal currant-leaf mid-palate, and the wine almost visibly picks up steam in the glass. Still, it’s a shy kind of critter for this estate. (+)”

Nikolaihof Riesling Steiner Hund Reserve 2009 ($69.95) $59 special 2 bottles left
Terry Theise notes “This vineyard is existentially unique, as if it had its own magnetic fields. Druids would have built their megaliths there.Maybe at night a UFO lands silently and all the little space dudes get out and do some magic, I don’t know. But I knowof no other great wine that seems so unknowable, overwhelming and haunting. Beautiful and unusual, all of its gorgeously strange green mineral together with the chamomile and yellow fruits and osmanthus of ’09! I mean really, you can’t stop sniffing it. More solid and firmly spicy than the more oxidative ’08 and ’07; this is like the ’05 diving into an ice cold pool; all the crazy mineral jazz plays on the back palate.”

Nikolaihof Riesling Vom Stein Smaragd 2010 750ml ($64.95) $55 special 12 bottles left
Nikolaihof Riesling Vom Stein Smaragd 2010 1.5L ($139.95) $119 special 6 bottles left
Terry Theise notes “Almost rugged and gnarly-that’s ’10 baby. Flowering fields aroma doesn’t specifically signal “Riesling,” but the stretchy sinewy palate scratches that very itch; it’s the sting of mint without the mint of mint.”

* Wachau photo courtesy of inmagine stock photo library