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Pure Brilliance at Schloss Gobelsburger!
There are two words that get
abused in the wine trade - "cult" and "genius." The original use of
"cult" to describe wines was limited to a couple of microproduction
California Cabernets that commanded shocking prices in the middle of
the 1990s - Harlan, Bryant, Screaming Eagle and the like. The word
"cult" soon was applied to any winery that charged too much for its
wines, but didn't make very much of it.
Genius might be abused even more - and not just in the wine world. Make
great wine long enough, and someone will call you a genius.
So I'm going to try to avoid using those words when I talk about
Michael Moosbrugger and his winery, Schloss Gobelsberg. When everything
is a "cult", and everyone is a "genius," those words lose their
meaning. What I will say, and I this is said without hyperbole, is that
the line-up of white wines I tried this past summer from Schloss
Gobelsberg was, hands down, the best individual range of white wines I
tried all year. Only Morey-Coffinet in Burgundy came close.
There are many different ways I have of bringing wine to your door -
one of the best, and at the same time, most frustrating, is through
large direct imports. An importer presents a large line-up of wines, we
select what we like, and they bring them from the winery to us. Since
no one has to carry between us and the winery, we get a better price
(which we pass down to you). So we get access to more wines more
affordably, but they show up all at once, often months after we first
tasted them. I tasted the Gobelsberg wines in the heat of July - they
arrived on our doorstep in the middle of our chaotic December
move.
Fifty cases arrive on your doorstep, almost six months after you try
them. How much would you remember? Enough, usually, but in this case I
remembered the Gobelberg wines well enough that I was tearing into the
boxes as soon as I uncovered them. Yes, they remain just as good as I
remembered.
I would love to have a story about how wonderful it was to taste the
wines with Michael Moosbrugger in July. He was a nice guy, but there
was enough of a language barrier and so many things going on at the
tasting that our interaction was limited to me holding out a glass and
saying "wow" with each wine he poured. Moosbrugger has a great story -
he took a centuries-old property and breathed it back to life, where it
is now rightly dicussed as being among the very best Austria has to
offer.
There are six white wines on offer - two Rieslings (DRY Rieslings) and
four Gruner Veltliners. The basic Gruner and Riesling are my early
front-runners for '2012 Best White Wine Under $20'. If someone asked me
why I like Gruner Veltliner, my response would be to open the Steinsetz
bottling and share it with them.
And then there are the single-vineyards (very limited)....the Gruner
'Grub' shines. It's a beautifully minerally wine, with great richness.
The Riesling Heiligenstein is one of the best dry Rieslings I have ever
tasted - and one customer who bought a bottle told me it took White
Wine of the Night against some very stiff (and much more expensive)
competition.
The Gruner Tradition is (how to explain this in a few sentences?) an
attempt to enter the spirit of winemaking 100 years ago, when
winemaking technology was rudimentary at best. The trend in white wine
making is to minimize or virtually eliminate exposure to oxygen, which
was impossible before stainless steel was widely available. Moosbrugger
wondered how great wines were made, and set about experimenting with
more oxidative handling.
The result is a wine of haunting complexity - recognizably Gruner, but
recognizable in the same way things in dreams seem so different from
what they are in the waking world, yet somehow you know them
immediately. I loved this wine.
Schloss Gobelsberger 2010 Gruner Veltliner Kamptal - $15.99/bt
Schloss Gobelsberger 2010 Riesling Kamptal - $19.99/bt
Schloss Gobelsberger 2010 Gruner Veltliner 'Steinsetz' Kamptal Reserve - $29.99/bt
Schloss Gobelsberger 2010 Gruner Veltliner 'Grub 1er Lage' - $54.99/bt
Schloss Gobelsberger 2010 Riesling 'Heiligenstein 1er Lage' - $64.99/bt
Schloss Gobelsberger 2009 Gruner Veltliner 'Tradition' - $51.99/bt
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