Weingut Tegernseerhof

Tegernseerhof vineyard
Tegernseerhof vineyard
Tegernseerhof vineyard
Tegernseerhof vineyard
Tegernseerhof vineyard
Tegernseerhof vineyard
Tegernseerhof vineyard
Tegernseerhof vineyard
Tegernseerhof vineyard
Tegernseerhof vineyard
Tegernseerhof vineyard
Tegernseerhof vineyard
Tegernseerhof vineyard

Photography and writing by Ted Vance.

Martin Mittelbach is a Wachau insider with an outsider’s perspective. He is the fifth generation of Mittelbachs to run the historical Tegernseerhof, an estate that goes further back than 1000 years. Despite the estate’s historical merit you couldn’t find a much more progressive winemaker with his own set of standards and way of thinking in this region. Martin took over the estate at a very young age and immediately changed the way things were done. As you could imagine, there was some friction with his father who preferred to make wines more on the sweeter side. Today, you would be hard pressed to find a more dry and straight style in the Wachau. The grapes are harvested and sorted rigorously to take out any botrytis grapes and then vinified and raised in stainless steel. They are harvested with no botrytis to keep the wines focused and tense. His wines are like his personality: intense, focused and highly intellectual. These laser beams are as far away from the often baroque style that can be found in this region. In every level his wines excel and can stand tall next to any of the greatest producers in Austria.

Weingut Tegernseerhof Bergdistel Gruner Veltliner

Weingut Tegernseerhof - 2022 Grüner Veltliner, Bergdistel, Smaragd

Price: $34.00
Size: 750ml
Availability: 

Out of stock

Type of Wine: White
Grape(s): 100% Grüner Veltliner
Style: Mineral, Elegant and Aromatic

GROWER OVERVIEW

Fifth generation winegrower, Martin Mittelbach runs the historical Wachau winery, Tegernseerhof, which dates back more than a thousand years. Organically certified in the early 2020s, their Riesling vineyards are mostly located on the steep upper terraces composed of gneiss, and the Grüner Veltliners (except the cru, Hohereck, which is on a steep gneiss slope) are on lower loess terraces of the Wachau’s most eastern end, Loiben. All the grapes are harvested by hand and carefully sorted to remove any botrytis grapes that add unnecessary weight to Martin’s razor-sharp wines aged on their lees and exclusively in steel vats. All grapes are whole-cluster pressed and fermented naturally (unless sluggish) and sometimes go through malolactic fermentation, though in principle it is not desired. All wines are filtered, a necessity to remove any remaining malic acid bacteria from the inhibited malolactic fermentations, and the Grüner Veltliners are fined, also a necessary technique for this extremely protein-heavy variety.

VINEYARD DETAILS

Tegernseerhof’s Bergdistel Grüner Veltliner comes from many small parcels in the Loiben and Weissenkirchen areas with mostly southerly exposures and altitudes between 220-300m. The bedrock and topsoil are mostly gneiss with some loess.

CELLAR NOTES

Hand harvest, rigorous sorting, no botrytis, natural ferment in stainless.

About The Wine

This wine is an explosion of pleasure straight out of the bottle. A blend of vineyards from Weisenkirchen and Loiben, it has a crazy good range of complex pleasantries that are developed in the confines of stainless steel. The soils are mostly composed of the great acidic bedrock (which they refer to as “primary rock”) gfogel gneiss, and a bit of loess.

Uni, iodine, marine salt, gardenia, sweet mint, cassis, black pepper, peanut brittle, and sweet green melon make for an intensely complex set of aromas that leap from the glass—all within the first seconds of smelling it! This wine relentlessly infiltrates your senses and commands your attention until the last drop is gone. It’s unapologetically extroverted with the addicting charm of a great storyteller, loaded with deep mineral, metal, and powerful rock notes. Simply put, this is awesome stuff. If there is a Bono, or Mick, in the range of Martin’s wines, this is it!