Palate
The palate has strong grapefruit flavors with a mineral complex to complement the aromatics, and an acid profile that will work with, but never overwhelm an intricate food pairing.
Growing Conditions
We have 1.2 acres of Grüner planted on this site. Norah's Vineyard itself is one of our most reliable producing sites. It never gets frosted and produces consistently heavy crops. Grüner loves to crop heavy when you let, this is something we constantly fight. This wine is always truly made in the vineyard. If you let the vine simply do what it wanted it would grow loads of unruly vegetation and produce excessive amounts of clusters that would never ripen. We have to implement very strategic pruning and canopy management techniques to ensure we get the fruit quality we want.
Winemaking
Grüner is fairly hassle free when it comes to the winemaking end. Our goal is always to try and make sure it's as varietally expressive as possible without excessive temporary fermentation aromatics.
Aging
The wine was fermented cool and aged on light lees for 6 months to increase its longevity. The brix tend to plateau early in the vineyard so we generally need to coax out all the free terpenes and thiols possible to ensure the aromatic expression lacks the subtlety the fruit can have. The aromatics tend to stray all over the map during aging, but once the wine has its few months in bottle it finally gains its focus.
Food Pairing
Since Grüner Veltliner is a crisp white wine and is a perfect palate cleanser for richly flavored foods, you can't go wrong with pairing with classic Austrian dishes like sautéed kidneys or Asian spices. It also pairs well with vegetable such as artichoke and grilled asparagus.
