Weingut Hirsch, Zöbinger Heiligenstein, Grüner Veltliner, 2006

Having had a fun afternoon sipping austrian wines recently, I dediced it was time for another foray into the territory of Grüner Veltliner, also known as "Groona" in the Vayniac universe. The austrian national grape, Grüner Veltliner makes for powerfully spicy, herbal and mineral whites, if, and only if, handled expertly by ethnic austrians with Veltliner strains in their genome. Johannes Hirsch from the Kamptal clearly qualifies here. We have tasted his 06 Heiligenstein a year ago with a very respectable, but didn't-blow-our-socks-off kind of result. So what has an additional year of bottle age done for this wine?

Quite a bit, it seems, quite a bit:

Deep straw colour. Very focused smell of herbs, meadows, dried apples, stones and even a little petrol (Watch it, Austrians: hands off of our german petrol aromatics!). Concentrated on the palate, nice and fresh, dried herbs, a little beeswax, a little bacon fat (yeah!), very peppery. This one has aged very gracefully and interestingly, and has gained new depth in the process. Nice to have met again.