Wednesday, July 02, 2008

The end of a vineyard


I'm sipping on one of the most stunning white wines ever produced. I've had the Stadt Krems Sandgrube Gruner Veltliner 2006 Kremstal, Austria many times, but it just never ceases to truly amaze me. This pure, concentrated, ripe white has layers of white pepper spice, peach, apricot, minerality & acidity. It is simply stunning. Which makes it all the more tragic that the Sandgrube vineyard in Kremstal was obliterated by hail in late 2007. The vineyard has been replanted but it won't be producing for at least another 5 years. But how can these newly planted vines ever reproduce the magic that the old vines so liberally displayed? Each sip of this sublime wine almost makes me cry thinking of how I'm drinking history & helping this beautiful thing along to extinction. But its too delicious to stop.

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

Can you start mentioning the stores where you get these? I'd love to know where to find some of these.

Michael Hughes said...

Sure thing. I only know of one store that still has a few bottles left of the Sandgrube. You can get it at Joe's in Midtown. They also have a lot of other Austrian wines as well. Have a good 4th!