NV Schloss Gobelsburg - Tradition 10 Years Edition 851 (750ml)

Schloss Gobelsburg's Tradition series is Michael and Eva Moosbrugger's tribute to the way wine was made at the estate in the early nineteenth century, roughly between 1800 and 1850, an era defined by bold, intensely aromatic winemaking rather than the precision styles common today. Rather than treating history as a curiosity, the Moosbruggers use it as a working method, applying period techniques to modern fruit to recreate a style of white wine that has largely disappeared from Austria.

This bottling blends Grüner Veltliner and Riesling in roughly an eighty to twenty split, built mainly around a single base vintage supplemented with smaller additions of older reserve wines. The grapes are pressed in a basket press to keep sediment low, then fermented without any temperature control in large twenty five hectoliter Manhartsberg oak casks. The wine is racked every three to four months over about two years, a slow process that lets it breathe while gradually falling clear of its lees before bottling.

The result is nutty and gently oaked, with cream, caramel, hazelnut, and almond nougat on the nose, framed by a full bodied, saline palate with real lift and grip. Serve it with roast capon, aged Manchego, or a nutty wild rice pilaf.