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EP 823 Gruner Veltliner Head to Head

Gary tastes some GruVee (or Gruner Veltliner) from Austria with some surprising results.

Wines tasted in this episode:

2008 Fuchs Gruner VeltlinerMittelburgenland White
2007 Hirsch #1 Gruner VeltlinerKamptal White

Links mentioned in todays episode.


Latest Comment:

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luca bercelli

89/100

I enjoyed this show a lot more than GV seemed to. Especially the bit where he ponders a scenario at a dinner table with two introverted, boring brothers. ‘Of course being tremendously over the top I would carry the conversation all night’. I love those sort of line… because they are undoubtedly true.

Tags: Gruner Veltliner, review, white, wine, wines

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  • lol

  • winemonologues

    Disappointment. . . Detroit Lions. . . nuf said.

  • winemonologues

    Have to agree. Anyone watching this show and seeing a Gruner for the first time will be turned off to GruVee. Bring on some good GruVee.

  • QOTD: 2006 Stag's Leap Merlot. I really pumped myself up for this wine, and was talking up the region and winery quite a bit to my friends who were going to share the bottle with me. It was really kinda “meh”

  • Try Gattinger – 12 euro/15 dollar- or Geyerhof (esp. the Steinleithn!) – 18 euro/24 dollar -. These two seriously made me love GruVee and Austria as a winecountry. I digggggg them so hard.

    QOTD: Beni di Batasiolo Barolo Riserva 1999… Not bad, but one-dimensional and disjointed. Liquorice overwhelming so fruit didn't stand a chance. Too bad, was pumped about this wine. 88+ points.

  • It's strange, I read your comment and completely agreed with the first half. But then you say you're disappointed when there's no Sasha.

    With all due respect to Sasha, I often find the shows he appears on to be long winded and a little bit tedious and indulgent. I'm here' for GV and not much more. Don't get me wrong I think Sasha is likable and everything… but just go back to the last episode he was in (#820 FU Shiraz) and put a stopwatch on the length of time that the wine at hand is even discussed. Out of 30 minute show!!!

    Sorry folks, everyone seems to LOOOOVE Sahsa. I'm not jumping on the bandwagon.

  • TommyR

    GV's description of the wines as introverted reminds me of the joke about actuaries. What's the difference between an introverted actuary and an extroverted actuary? The introverted actuary looks at his shoes when he's talking to you. The extroverted actuary looks at your shoes when he's talking to you.

  • Maybe the lesson here is, you get what you pay for with Gruner??

  • mattgmann

    Too bad on the corked wine, but nice catch on the cheap SA juice.

    Not a disappointing weekend on this end either. No need to comment on the obvious pricey bottles we downed, but there were two wines that brought serious thunder.

    1st, Plan Pegau 2006. Wow. Basically a table wine in the Chateauneuff Du Pape style. It's made with grapes outside the appellation and some pegau rape, but is extremely well made (wouldn't expect less from Laurence Feraud), and pleasantly complex. A very subtle wine with nice red fruit/cherry flavors, lavender, and tart tannins leading into a goat-cheesey finish. Really wonderful as a table wine.. Just don't blow your palate out on a big wine before trying this one. $15. 88pts.

    2nd. Bodegas Las Cartujas Priorat 2007. $15! And it doesn't suck! Quite the opposite, a real priorat that's big and fruity with strong but balanced tannins. I know, ….cheap priorat very often isn't worthwhile, or doesn't taste like priorat. But this is the real deal. It was easily the best bottle of the night. 90pts

  • bernhardberinger

    sorry, Gary, but this show really makes me doubtful about your tasting notes and recommendations of what to try. A “Hirsch 2007”: That's the three-years-old-“Beaujolais Nouveau” from a serious producer and the other wine is a GV from Mittelburgenland which is like Pinot Noir from Bordeaux!!!!!! Gary, I really like your approach to wine and letting people take part, but I really hope that this show was “quick and dirty” and not the way you work usually. Just opening two bottles of GV???? I don't know how sales-driven your blog is, but if you want to tell people about Grüner Veltliner why don't you have some serious stuff??????

  • Waltraud

    The last time I was disappointed: just yesterday. I'm pretty loud and obnoxious and carry the conversations usually as well since I've had an aversion to awkward silences as a kid. But I gotta say…trying to talk to friends and usually having great conversations with them…last night was flat despite opening two bottles of wine (a Malbec and Riesling) and watching the food network. We just ended up being disappointed with the Iron Chef America judging panel too (fyi: the original Iron Chef is much better).

  • mattgmann

    You picked a sub-par show to make your first comment? 2000+ bottles down, and you criticize the bottom of the barrel? You may be completely right sir, but the sampling of work you've based your doubts on is pretty skewed. There are at lease 7 other episodes featuring gruner veltliner. One bad showing shouldn't affect anyone's perception of an entire varietal. And Gary being honest about a couple of cheap gru-v's should only serve as a warning to be cautious in the price range. I'd rather get an honest opinion than a guy trying to hock his overstocked wine by pumping it up on his own show.

  • corkscrew

    Not exactly going to run out and search for these wines…..Gary hope you enjoyed the Miami sun…think you needed to escape this shitty weather from the way u ended this show. QOTD-when that damm groundhog saw his shadow…. winelx.com

  • ifke

    First time posting….just love your wine tv. I'm from Croatia and sorry for my bad english. Weinviertel (or Veltlinerland) in Austria is 4 our drive from Zagreb and my cellar is filled with veltliner and riesling from that area. I'm singer in Radiotelevision choir of Zagreb, adore classical music and often make a weekend trip with visiting Wien opera and as many wine producers as we can squeese in two days. Should probably writing about croatian wines cause we also have some good and excelent stuff, but I have to admit our wines are overpriced. When we enter EU(which should be in 3 years) I hope competition will make our prices fall down. But now about veltliners…..totally agree with bernhardberinger….if you want people to get to know and like this sort of wine, pick some REAL stuff and taste it. In this time of year they are already filling their lighter, young, entry level stuff from 2009 vintage. And if 2007, pick some havier wines over 13% alc from good position and good producer that can ripe through 3 years. And veltliner from Burgenland? It needs rock, löss(sand) and cool nights and no that for grüvy in Burgenland. Come on,man, you can do better then that……….orrrr!!!! Or you want us to start hating veltliners…….so you can keep it all to yourself. Saw right through you, YOU GREEEEDY VELTLINERDEVOURER!!!!

  • castello

    They were celebrating four years of Thunder! The wine was not even on the list of priorities. The majority of us love him and will watch every second of their banter.

  • Cool_Dave

    Good show! Sorry about the wines. : (
    Just had Quivira 2006 Zinfandel. Realy good! The Sauvignon Blanc is also very good. Leans toward the Loire.

  • Cool_Dave

    Welcome to the wine library world!!
    Check out the archives. Gary does some Croatian wines and Good Gruener Veltliners.

  • @ bernhardberinger im sorry to let you down… I have done many shows on GV's http://tv.winelibrary.com/index.php?s=gruner+ve…

  • Capt_M

    Don't be disappointed! I liked the show. I find Gruners to be intriguing sometimes, on their own right, and different on their approach. Definitely not my favorite wines, but quite particular and different to interpret. QOTD: What a big coincidence that somebody mentioned El Puntido and Pio Cesare Barolo. These two are exactly my two big disappointments, and it happened very recently, and on the same day!! I don't even want to talk about it. Very disappointing experience. What a coincidence! It's almost haunting me.

  • I still learned a lot from this show. Didn't know much about GruVee. That's why we love u, cuz you're honest!

  • NY Pete

    u making the rounds tonight? will GV be spotted in the forum next?

  • QOTD: That would be just now because I just watched all of the past week's WLTV's in one shot and to end on this one, through no fault of yours Gary, is a little bit of a downer.

  • Kirk

    Wow…such a crushing blow when you are disappointed by wines you had high hopes for.

    QOTD: Friday (2/26/10) night I was crushed by the lack of quality in the '02-'07 Bergström Vertical that I hosted with some guests from the WLTV forum at my apartment. I can not begin to share my disappointment with the wines.

  • murso

    GV (!),

    I dig some Gruners, and as I'd said before, they've come a long way – light years, even, from the poor condition, on arrival, of most offerings that were available before 10 or 12 years ago. The high acid, and transparent fruit left them often stranded, like a beached small fish struggling for it's life, and left to die. Between the unrefrigerated shipping, and then their time that they'd go to age, and die in warehouses from the East Coast ,and onward. By the time they'd gotten to markets like Cleveland (w/ a spectacularly huge Eastern Euro -population base), or worse, even more provincial markets in other regions, they'd be 'toast'. Oxidized, maderized vinegar.
    Happily, times have progressed, for these kinds of wines, and for many other internationally shipped products of quality which may be age/temp sensitive and/or perishable. I'd had several faves, in the regular (under $15) price range, a few ofthem of the past 5-8 years are Huber 'Hugo', and Hofer's delicious 1L, organic (Theise!) regular offering, with the cool beer bottle cap. I LOVED to pour that wine for friends at my house. And they'd say ” Gruner WHAT? Tony, you are CRAZY. Crazy awesome!” Last week I had Hopler, Neusiedlersee G.V. '07, which showed tart apricot, a touch of nutiness in the scent, and still had alot of ZING. Was great w/ the pepper sauteed Mahi my sister served, w/ haricots, and buttered couscous.
    Q – my last day off, last Wed., was a day from Hell. Enough. Trying to get over it. Happily, even (a stressful) day at my career is better than that!
    …and ,as I love it when YOU say… “Let's move on..” ! .

  • Doug

    I was hoping somebody could point me in the direction of Gary's e-mail.

  • jcrazy

    Love me the Gruner. It's too bad the two you drank didn't have any sacs.
    QOTD: Two weeks ago.

  • Doug

    I have been a few days behind because I watch on hulu, but as response of Gary's dad's comments about improvements, I would like:

    The sortable list for Gary's ratings to be i,proved. The sort by score feature is currently useless.

    I was also hoping that the wines that are going to be tasted to be posted on the website at least a couple days in advance so if somebody would like to taste the wine with Gary the option is there.

  • I would love to see you do these head to head battles double blind. That would be really radool!

  • DionysusPrincess

    The past few episodes have been short and sweet, but this was sad 🙁 Hopefully there'll be some thunder tomorrow! QOTD: Disappointed by the gold medal hockey game tonight…so close!

  • QOTD: USA Hockey 🙁

  • arcticcat1000

    Any news on Wine Library or Cinderella Wine apps for the Iphone?????

  • No, seriously, they did good. They play the hockey of the future so watch them become world champions, and olympic champions in years to come.

  • winemonologues

    Based on my history with Gruner, I would agree. . . maybe Gary should do a show with Gruners at about $20?

  • Just Jack

    I take your point Jacaranda. I realized the contradiction was there at the time I made the post. I think there is a time to make the show purely about the wine, and in general I would appreciate more of those shows. I also think that once in a while I just need to smile a bit more. That’s what Sasha does for me. he gets my smile on with his wonderful personality.

    Now, the problem comes when we have guests who don’t add anything on the wine front. And, they bring nothing on the personality side either; you know, “I don’t pay for wine” kind of folks. Those are the guests that make me feel like the time I spent watching was not time well spent.

  • ifke

    Thanks, Dave! I saw it all….as a lurker (is this right spelling,btw?). Some of those episodes were quite fascinating. I'm totally thrilled that Gary likes Gruner and hope to see them more on Gary's table in the future. And of course our croatian PLAVAC from south, we have some more bombastic stuff like that that Gary tasted from mr. Plenkovi?….

  • Krunch
  • ewb

    QOTD: When Canada won Gold in Ice Hockey.

  • The crappy wine continued the next night:
    2005 Numanthia: all oak, little fruit (i think the glory days of numanthia are over, especially now that it’s been sold).
    2007 Orin Swift Papillon. Not bad, but not good enough for the price point.
    2007 Cade Napa Valley. Can’t believe this wine’s going for $60. Way overpriced.
    2006 Bricco Babelico from Scholium Project. Interesting wine, but didn’t blow me away.
    2006 Rubicon Cask, light and boring.
    2008 Two Hands Angel’s Share. Not bad, but ultimately forgettable.
    The last two wines did deliver.
    2007 Anderson Conn Valley Right Bank. Tasty, but way too young. Nice balance though.
    2005 Pahlmeyer Merlot (probably my favorite Merlot made in the US), so knew it would save the disappointing string of wine.

  • gbinm

    When I missed the Can-US hockey game and happy when the Kid scored!

    as for Gruners next time maybe try a schloss Gobelsburg (spelling)
    they have been slayers for me so far.
    I even saw where they bested some TOP white burgundies in an Austrian-French taste off.

  • Lyman

    Never the candy.

  • Just Jack

    I don’t get the whole connection between the quality of the wine and the quality of the show thing. I am just as grateful that I know to pazz on a wine that is terrible as I am when I discover something that brings thunder. This was a great, straight forward wine show. That doesn’t change just because the wines sucked.

  • hahahahaha…GRU-VEE rocks! How have I never heard that acronym/nickname? Short but awesome show….because what the hell else could you possibly expect from GRU-VEEs? I actually like them, but they are almost always uneventful wines in my experience. BUT! Gru-vee's are easily the best bottled water coming out of Austria today.

    At least they aren't adding anti-freeze to their wines anymore. Anybody out there know what I'm referencing with that Prestone smack-down? Cuz I'm not making it up!

  • Just Jack

    “it was reminiscence of a happy moments btw father and son amungst the daily caous of life, and celebrations of a 4 yr annv”

    Exactly !!!

  • angelatcarlson

    I love a good GV. Hey Gary, have you heard of Bill Mayer, the Art of Riesling guy? He imports a GV from Pollerhof that's a great buy at about $14 for a 1 lt. bottle. Crisp, clean, delicious!

    Everybody: Had some AWESOME white wines from Michigan at the Alsace Festival:
    http://www.bellago.com Loved the Auxerrois
    http://blackstarfarms.com The Pinot Gris was delicious and I'll have some soon
    http://wwwcgtwines.com The Ship of Fools and Whole Cluster Riesling are on my list

    QOTD: My husband didn't get the job. But that means we don't have to move and I won't have to buy real winter clothes yet.

  • englishexlurker

    I dunno if you guys have this wine in the States but Domaine Wachau Terraces Gru-Vee is really good and really good value. It goes for about £8 here so maybe it would be $12 your side of the pond. Of course Terraces might just be a brand for the UK market but this is a large co-op so i would think at least some of their wines would make it over there to you…

    QOTD not sure. Maybe the GB Curling teams lamentable Olympic performance?

  • angelatcarlson

    Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that Bel Lago only ships within MI. : (
    Black Star Farms and Chateau Grand Traverse ship outside of MI.

  • Aww bummer that neither showed well! I think this is a great light wine to start with.

    QOTD: Think you asked this one before…disappointed in my checking account want more decimal points!

  • Best Gruner I've ever tried was the 2002 FX Pichler Smaragd Durnsteiner Kellerberg. Not cheap by any means, but was on a totally different level then any other Gruner I've tried.

  • CBone

    QOTD: I was disappointed yesterday afternoon…when that vile Sidney Crosby beat the wonderful, humble and talented Ryan Miller on the right side, and crushing my heart with a Canada victory over the USA in what was one of the most exciting hockey games ever played! But what a heart breaker…

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