Stift Göttweig, Furth Grüner Veltliner - 2023

Fast Facts:

Winemaker(s): Fritz Miesbauer
Region: Furth → Kremstal DAC → Austria
Varietal(s): Grüner Veltliner
Terroir: Loess and gravel soils, warm easterly winds, Danube River moderation
Serving Temp: 48-52°F

Stift Göttweig overlooks the Danube from a hill on the river's south bank, opposite the town of Krems. Benedictine monks showed up here in 1083 and got their first vines in the ground almost immediately. When fire destroyed the monastic buildings in 1718, they rebuilt the whole place on wine revenue alone. A little nod to wine being the engine for these monks and many others across Europe (looking at you, Chartreuse!). By the late 20th century, that engine had stalled. Wartime confiscation, postwar decline, and a cellar office that finally shuttered in 1987.

Enter Fritz Miesbauer in 2006. By the time the abbey brought him in to revive the operation, he'd already done it twice. He'd turned Domäne Wachau into one of Europe's great cooperative wineries, then done the same at Weingut Stadt Krems. Today Fritz and his crew farm 30 sustainable hectares across the Göttweiger Berg, the hill the abbey sits on. Two sites carry Erste Lage status from the ÖTW, Austria's answer to grand cru: Gottschelle for Grüner Veltliner and Silberbichl for Riesling. Okay nerd facts subsiding.

The Furth bottling captures the abbey hill in full, drawing from its various soils: gravelly sand on the lower flats, deep loess up the slopes, weathered primary rock where the wind has done its work. Warm Pannonian winds blow in, cool forest air drifts down, the river moderates between them, pretty dreamy. Fritz keeps the winemaking quiet: hand-sorted fruit, gentle crushing, fermentation in stainless, then several months on fine lees to get that excellent texture you're about to experience.

Why'd we pick it?

First, Grüner Veltliner is one of our favorite varietals ever. It arrives like a cold splash of river water with a super fresh and vivid profile. The Furth bottling captures this so beautifully, and even after 40 generations of winemaking, the wine still tastes like the fresh Spring treat. It's an easy drinker that makes everything next to it taste better.

Field Notes

• Tastes like: Crunchy green apple, super ripe nectarine, with plenty of nostalgic petrichor, lemon zest, and acid that wakes everything up.
• Serve it at fridge temp, maybe let it sit 10 minutes before pouring to give it a bit more oomph and open.
• Food Pairings: Roast asparagus with butter, parm, breadcrumbs, and throw a soft-boiled egg on top if you're feeling cool. Sear some spot prawns in garlic butter while you're at it. Or really lean in and embrace a soft pretzel with grainy mustard from Hess Bakery in Lakewood.