2017 Gritsch/Mauritiushof Kirchpoint Gruner Veltliner Federspiel Wachau 750 ml

Flouting Trends and Following Tradition

This is the time of year when lunches at Wine Access get good: when we grab a bottle out of the ice bucket and take it for a short walk, over to the sunny patio at Hog Island Oyster Company. Our order never varies: two dozen Tomales Bay oysters and a tangy chèvre salad—so we always bring a white wine that complements the food. And every once in a while, we’ll bring one that absolutely steals the show, like the 2017 Gritsch Mauritiushof Kirchpoint Grüner Veltliner Federspiel.

Gritsch’s Kirchpoint Grüner Veltliner is the epitome of a site-expressive wine: Raised in the emerald-hued Wachau region of Austria, it is pristine and peppery, and boasts tons of lemon-lime zest and mineral energy. It is the perfect wine to match with oysters, Asian cuisine, and even tough-to-pair foods like artichokes and pickled vegetable salads.

It goes without saying that this wine will please devotees of impeccably made Grüner. But it’s truly hard to imagine an oenophile who won’t love this wine, because whether you’re a fan of pinpoint-focused Old World whites like Chablis, Sancerre, and Albariño—or just looking for a perfect fall sipper—the Gritsch Kirchpoint Gruner Veltliner is as good as you can get. 

The picturesque Wachau, northwest of Vienna, is Austria’s most prized wine region. It’s where sloping and terraced vineyards quickly ascend out of the banks of the Danube, and where the Gritsch family clan has been cultivating vines since they took over the Mauritiushof—a 13th-century building in the town of Spitz once used by monks as a harvesting station—back in 1799.

Franz-Josef Gritsch is the fresh-faced winemaker whose youth makes it tempting to write about some revolutionary influence he is bringing to the estate. But Franz-Josef is the latest in a 200-year line of winemakers whose strength is in its steadfastness. Because in the Wachau, the finest winemakers—think of the world-renowned and exacting Rudi Pichler—are the guardians of time-tested ways. They flout trends and follow tradition.

In producing Grüner Veltliner, that guardian role is literal: Part of Franz-Josef’s job is to keep the wine laser-focused by preventing malolactic conversion, the process that creates buttery, creamy white wines. So if your mouth waters for lean, focused white wines that stand up to the best of the Loire and Burgundy, then this is your wine.

This is the platonic ideal of dry Austrian wine—showing rocky minerality, telltale white pepper notes, and outstanding citrus energy—so we have no doubt our rabid Gruner Veltliner contingent will be all over it, just like we were at Hog Island. Here’s hoping there is some left for our Chablis, Sancerre, and Albariño lovers, because this is a big-tent wine, one that will thrill just about anyone whose mouth waters over top-notch white wine.