Gruner Veltliner, which correctly is spelled Grüner Veltliner, (please forgive us for omitting the German Umlauts,- they give many computers indigestion) is a white grape variety widely planted in Austria. Other countries that grow Gruner Veltliner are Slovakia, the Czech Republic and to a lesser extent Hungary and Italy (although in Northeastern Italy, “Veltliner” is the German speaking minority’s name for Valtellina)—and a few ambitious Germans. (*).
But it’s safe to say that Gruner Veltliner rightfully came to world acclaim as an Austrian grape. Virtually all of the finest Gruner Veltliner bottlings to this date come from Austria.

While the grape variety possesses a long heritage dating back to the time of Roman colonization, the name Gruner Vetliner is fairly new. Until the 1940s, the name Gruner Muskateller prevailed, despite a total lack of any recognizable link to the Muskateller grape. Other names for Gruner Veltliner are Manhardsrebe and Weissgipfler.

DNA testing revealed Gruner Veltliner's ancestors to be Traminer on one side and an unknown grape variety on the other. What is interesting about the Traminer connection is that chardonnay claims Traminer as an ancestor as well...

Gruner Veltliner is by far the most widely planted grape variety in Austria, with over 36% of all plantings. Distant second is the Welschriesling or Riesling Italico, with 9%. To draw a comparison, the true Rhine Riesling—for all the renown of many great bottlings—can claim barely 3.5% of vineyard surface. Gruner Veltliner shows more authentic faces than any other variety—everything from Sekt (think Schloss Gobelsburg) to Eiswein (our own Manfred Weiss) with long luxuriant station-stops all down the line from tavern-wine in Grinzing and Stammersdorf by way of luscious, priceworthy and praiseworthy liter-bottlings from the Weinviertel and Wagram, Kamptal and Kremstal through bright and vivacious Federspiel (12.5% alcohol tops) bottlings from the Wachau, along with similar welterweights in Kremstal and Kamptal—ultimately arriving at the magnificent and eloquent wines of the Smaragd class in the Wachau (like Johann Donabaum's Spitzer Point, Gritsch-Mauritiushof’s Singerriedel, Rudi Pichler’s Hochrain, Leo Alzinger’s Steinertal, Josef Högl’s Ried Schön, Hirtzberger’s Honivogel Gruner Veltliner, Prager’s Achleiten Stockkultur, Jamek’s Ried Klaus) which show themselves every bit as site-specific and capable of transmitting refined elements of terroir as the finest Rieslings, while doing so with a texture and expression more commonly associated with premiers crus and grands crus white burgundies. The recent success of the variety on the world stage coupled with improvements in technique and technology are leading winegrowers to once more rehabilitate heritage-sites, like Franz Josef Gritsch’s Atzberg project in Spitz.

(*A few plantings in the US produced interesting results. Rudi von Strasser produced a Gruner Veltliner in Napa Valley that showed promising fruit and acidity when we tasted it at the Wine and Spirits tasting in San Francisco. Can it hold up with the better Wachau wines? No. But this little blade cuts both ways: Cabernet Sauvignon from Lower Austria isn’t quite up to Howell Mountain just yet…)

Gruner Veltliner typically exhibits a wide panoply of aromatics and fruit characeristics on the palate. Most of the finer bottlings will show elements of citrus, kitchen-garden, sweet snap-peas, citrus, pineapple, while a riper Gruner Veltliner will tend towards pear or banana with nutty undertones—the range is wide and there are many more...Not uncommon is a white-pepper snap in the finish, which the natives call Pfefferl.

The Gruner Veltliner vine flourishes grown in meager soils as well as in deeper richer ones.
Examples of this are provided by the very stony terraces of Spitz, contrasted with the typically deep loess soils of Wagram. These two extremes embrace the Verwitterungsboden—decomposed stone—of the Wachau, Permian sandstone flavored with volcanic highlights in the Kamptal, loess terraces in the Kremstal, and the fossil limestone found in parts of the Traisental. This versatility ties a couple rags on to the tail of the question—what exactly does GV taste like?

Relatively late-ripening, the Gruner Veltliner is happiest when it has a long and lovely Autumn season in which to achieve its best balanced physiologic ripeness.

You can find Gruner Veltliner widely planted in all of Austria's wine regions except for Styria. Lower Austria—including all of its subdivisions Carnuntum, Kamptal, Kremstal, Traisental, Wachau, Wagram, Weinviertel and Thermenregion... Wien—the city of Vienna is a wine-growing district unto itself Burgenland—where it’s still the most widely planted white variety

Two major factors determine the regional characteristics of this highly adaptable grape variety: soils and weather.

Where the soils are meager and stony, like in the Wachau and parts of the Kamptal, the attendant minerality becomes a significant factor in the aromatics and flavor of the wine. In the deeper soils of Wagram, the wine takes on a weightier presence, with an entirely different texture.

Weather includes the general characteristics—like the Wachau’s favored situation right where the Pannonian and the Atlantic influences meet one another, which influences the length of the growing season no little—and the daily factors within a vintage, like sunshine and rainfall. Ripeness affects not only the inside of the grapes, but also the phenolic content of their skins—and yes, with the GV you do get to taste this ~

Recent vintages for Gruner Veltliner have been extraordinary. The wines of the 2006 vintage stand out for highest ripeness level, paired with exceptionally clean grape material, producing wines of immense power. The hype surrounding this vintage created the usual group of nay-sayers, whose aversion to this vintage was further congealed by the tendency of some wines to display tones of excessive alcohol in their infancy... 2007 brought an inherent balance with it that did not lack for magniloquent Smaragds, while restraining the Federspiel crowd from a temptation to burst their britches. 2008 was a problematic vintage all over the land; hail fell repeatedly almost everywhere except for the Wachau, where other elements of climatic whimsy delayed the end of harvest until early December.

Vintage	Rating	Notes	Condition
2008	Jury still out.	Climatic roller-coaster. Bloomy. Classic.
2007		Classic vintage.	Rainy August and perfect fall.
2006		Exceptional ripeness. Clean fruit. High Alc.
2005		Classic Vintage.
2004		Vintage marked by botrytis.	Some very good examples. Drink now.
2003		Hot vintage. Low acid.	Currently losing some weight. Improving.
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997		Fantastic vintage. Classic in style.	Can improve further.
1996