“Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.”
Sylvia Plath
Friday
Slept well. Breakfast at home.
It is a cloudless day. Perfect for wine tasting.
The wineries in Wachau, with a few exceptions, are family owned. This presents difficulties, visiting is usually by appointment only and some places do not offer tasting at all.
The positive is that there are fewer tourists and by making the effort for an appointment, you often get to meet the winemaker.
Like all wine regions, Wachau is all about vineyards. The vines here cling to the steep hills not for aesthetics, no amount of photographic scenery would make the effort of maintaining the steep terraced vineyards worthwhile.
The wines of Weingut Jäger were presented by winemaker Roman Jäger.
There is a rocky substrate on these hillsides, gföhler gneiss, and the wine of the Wachau has a minerality that comes from these vineyards. When I mentioned the gföhler gneiss to Roman, he pointed to the rock wall the tasting room was cut into, here is the famous gneiss.
If there is a winery that offers a pure expression of Grüner Veltliner, it is the wines Roman produces.
There is no oak, and he discards grapes that have botrytis.
2023 Weingut Jäger Federspiel Weissenkirchen Grüner Veltliner (Wachau, Austria)
A sweet melon nose with great balance on the palate. From the steep mountain hillside of Weissenkirchen which has deep clay soils.
2023 Weingut Jäger Federspiel Klaus Grüner Veltliner (Wachau, Austria)
The white pepper that makes Grüner famous is abundant in this wine. The Klaus vineyard has the gneiss soil but this wine shows only slight minerality. My pick of the Federspiel’s.
2023 Weingut Jäger Federspiel Weitenberg Grüner Veltliner (Wachau, Austria)
A vineyard with gföhler gneiss soil and the wine reflects this. Minerality and pristine acid.
After Domäne Wachau I was starting to believe the Smaragd wines were overworked. Roman presented his three single vineyard Smaragd’s and they showed the potential of the higher alcohol more powerful style. These wines are pure, laser sharp and stunning.
2022 Weingut Jäger Smaragd Achleiten Grüner Veltliner (Wachau, Austria)
A great wine that leans into tropical fruit flavours. A perfect balance of acid, structure, and texture that carries the high alcohol effortlessly. The best wine in the Jäger portfolio.
2022 Weingut Jäger Smaragd Kaiserberg Grüner Veltliner (Wachau, Austria)
The flagship of Roman’s wines. From the oldest vineyards, between 60 and 70 years old and located on the gneiss substrate. This wine is powerful yet balanced. The minerality is intense and pushes the fruit into the background. These wines age for decades and this wine needs some time. A formidable wine.
2022 Weingut Jäger Smaragd Steinriegl Grüner Veltliner (Wachau, Austria)
If you were to give someone an example of Grüner Veltliner, this would be it. About as pure an expression of the grape you will get.
“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”
William Faulkner