The sommelier suggests… Grüner Veltliner by Christopher Sealy

Christopher Sealy

Christopher Sealy is a sommelier, wine educator and occasional wine writer, based in Toronto. He was the recipient of the first ever Toronto Michelin Guide Sommelier Award in 2022, as wine director for Alo Food Group restaurants. In between frequent wine travel and wine service, Christopher can be found at the Saturday morning farmers’ market, spinning vinyl at a local wine bar, sipping fresh low-intervention wines, or in a coffee shop planning his next wine collaboration.


I first met Gru?ner Veltliner perhaps a decade ago, or more. I had scheduled a tasting with an agent who was touring my home town of Toronto with an Austrian wine producer – it was an unexpected encounter with the Gru?ner Veltliner grape: I was shy and caught off-guard. The Gru?ner shimmered with an emerald hue, was charming, nuanced, vibrantly fresh and complex at the same time.

I was intrigued. I became enamoured. I wanted to get to know Gru?ner wines in all their forms and fashions. To this day our relationship can be described as one big love affair.

My first visit to see Gru?ner Veltliner on its home soil was in the company of the wine-grower Fred Loimer, who is located in the Kamptal wine region in the Danube area of Lower Austria, Niedero?sterreich. The Kamp is one of the many tributaries that carve channels across the land, making way for the warm easterly breeze of the Pannonian Basin to enter and clash with the cool winds of the Atlantic descending from the north and west. Beautiful climates of tension allow for Gru?ner to be fashioned into some of the most dynamic wines I have ever tasted.

I have learned that, yes, Gru?ner can be styled into elegant and classic wines. Yet with a more raw, lower-interventionist/biodynamic approach, Gru?ner is capable of reaching indescribable heights of taste and delight. Austria is abundant in biodynamic wines.

Over the years, I’ve been able to explore Gru?ner’s native lands further, spending time in the cool, westerly, terraced vineyards of the Wachau where Gru?ner displays a crystalline and mineral side; like sunlight in winter. All the way east above Vienna to the rolling hills and valleys of a Sound-of-Music landscape that is the Weinviertel. Here a multitude of expressions of Gru?ner can be found, from sensual skin-contact wines to acacia-scented, spicy, peppery expressions. In between, there are the regions – no less in significance – of Kremstal, Traisental and Wagram, which all offer various other identities of Gru?ner.

When all you need is comfort at the table, Gru?ner easily takes the place of Sauvignon Blanc, Albarin?o or Muscadet – even Chardonnay in many instances. With any dish featuring or scented with asparagus, anise, fennel, cucumber, over a crudo, lake or ocean fish, Gru?ner is harmonious. With serious cuts of veal, pork, roast cauliflower or Brussels sprouts, meanwhile, enjoy a ‘reserve’ level or grand cru 1O?TW (Austria’s equivalent of the German Grosses Gewa?chs) expression of Gru?ner.

Good Gru?ner is irresistible, great Gru?ner is divine. Most Gru?ner is already styled and fashioned to a high degree. It’s just in its DNA. Take more than a sip and fall into a wonderful love affair.


Discover Gru?ner Veltliner: Sealy’s three to try

For those who love ‘classic’ styles, try any of the many expressions of Fred Loimer, particularly his Ried Spiegel 1O?TW, Langenlois, Kamptal. This is a wine for the cellar, reflective of time and space that shepherds the energy of soil and environment towards centre stage, like the skilled conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

Bottle of Fred Loimer's Ried Spiegel 1ÖTW, Langenlois, Kamptall

For those who may have explored Gru?ner at their local natural wine bar, try Weingut Sho?dl’s Gru?n, Gru?n, Gru?ner, Weinviertel 2022 (£28.50-£33 Modal Wines, Wayward Wines), for an expression of raw clarity. No funk, just enough edge with a peppered playfulness, and delight that keeps you coming back for more. As a food pairing option, this low-intervention wine works…


Source : https://www.decanter.com/wine/the-sommelier-suggests-gruner-veltliner-by-christopher-sealy-519149/

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