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Grüner Veltliner is the epitome of Austrian wine. But 200 years ago, the variety was also widespread in Germany, as contemporary documents show. Now it is back - albeit still in very small quantities. Three estates in Rheinhessen and the Rheingau have cultivated it again with interesting results.

"In the area around Heidelberg, especially on the plain, the Balteliner is often cultivated and preferred to many other varieties. There, when it becomes perfectly ripe, it gives very much and good wine." In 1827, the Heidelberg court gardener Johann Metzger described this grape variety in his book "Der rheinische Weinbau in theoretischer und praktischer Beziehung". Metzger describes the "green Balteliner" as a variant of a variety that is common in Oppenheim, Worms, the Rheingau, the Bergstrasse and many other places. In Pforzheim, the grape variety is called "Veltleiner". In all these places, the fragrant, spicy wine is no longer available - but all the more so in Austria. Since the 1950s, Grüner Veltliner has been as much a part of the Alpine Republic as Mozart and the Vienna Boys' Choir. In 1999, 37 percent of Austria's total vineyard area was planted with this grape variety. Now it is returning to the slopes of the Rhine.

An excerpt from "Rheinischer Weinbau


Ferdinand Koegler, shoulder-length hair, beard and fashionable glasses, sits in the spacious garden of his 15th-century Eltville estate. Church bells are ringing, old trees provide shade. The 38-year-old winemaker, a graduate of the Geisenheim College of Viticulture, took over the estate from his father in 1999. "I wanted to travel the world, gain winemaking experience in Europe and overseas," he says, "but that was the end of it for now." Koegler has remained an internationally oriented winemaker. He often travels to the USA and to fairs in China.

Since 1899, the Koegler winery had produced almost exclusively Riesling. In 2001, the new boss was therefore looking for a variety with which he could aromatically complement the Rheingau classic and thus expand the range. His guests and customers had repeatedly asked for a wine with less acidity than Riesling. "Chardonnay was out of the question. It didn't suit us." Nor did he want to grow the "hundred thousandth Sauvignon Blanc": "It's quite excellent in South Africa, but not here." While visiting winemaker friends in Austria, he had the idea: "Why not Grüner Veltliner?" The wine, he says, is powerful and aromatic, with beautiful fruity notes, little acidity and always a little bit of pepper on the tongue. "With Riesling, this taste profile complements each other perfectly. Sometimes good things are so close at hand," he says, explaining his decision. And he recalls stories told by his father: before the Second World War, the traditional Rheingau house wine, called "Bubbes", was pressed from various grape varieties standing on a slope - Grüner Veltliner was a natural part of it. Koegler learned that the variety was already permitted in Rhineland-Palatinate at that time. So he got himself some vines and planted half a hectare in a plot of the well-known "Kiedricher Sandgrub" vineyard.

Ferdinand Koegler

The Veltliner developed splendidly and produced huge yields - an aspect that quality-conscious winegrowers want to prevent, because otherwise quantity takes precedence over quality. "We sometimes cut out up to 80 percent of the yield, that's how thick the grapes were," Koegler recalls. The first results convinced the cosmopolitan winemaker, and in the meantime he has expanded the area under cultivation to almost two hectares. "That makes us the largest German Grüner Veltliner producer," he says and laughs. He vinifies it in two variants: As a light wine from the steel tank with twelve percent alcohol for eight euros and in a version from the 500-litre wooden barrel with 13.5 percent for about 15 euros. Both wines offer a minerality typical of the Rheingau, some white fruit and notes of pepper and herbs. The wood barrel version has more volume, melting, some roasted aromas and some almond notes. Koegler only sells 1500 bottles of this wine - the circle of regular customers includes ex-national football goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, for example.

The Grüner Veltliner can also be found on the other side of the Rhine. It is only a small, gently sloping parcel in the Nierstein vineyard "Brückchen". The vines were planted there eight years ago by Walter and Margit Strub of the J. u. H.A. Strub winery. Like Koegler, they do good business abroad - Strub exports about 60 percent of its total production to the USA. They also discovered the variety in Austria when they toured the well-known wine-growing regions of Kamptal and Krems. "You can drink it with a hearty snack just as well as with fine vegetables," Margit Strub enthuses. The two were looking for a complementary variety because they didn't want to rely on Silvaner and Weißburgunder like their neighbours.

Margit and Walter Strub

The first results, however, were "very disappointing". Only after three years did the late-ripening vines produce a yield that at least made experimenting worthwhile. "In the cellar, the wine cost me some effort and nerves because it behaves completely differently from Riesling during fermentation," admits Strub. But today, he says, it is "a wine with character that we sell excellently here in Germany." He lets it mature in large wooden barrels because the minimal oxygen supply "allows the aromas to develop better".

While Strub's Riesling develops typical notes of peach and citrus fruits as well as minerality and a long finish, the "GrüVe" is quite different: Hay, camomile, herbs, pepper, lots of power, but less long in the finish. In the meantime, American customers also like to buy the "German speciality" from the Rhine - and the regular German customers regularly ask for the "GrüVe" for 5.30 euros.

Walter Strub also knows that in the 19th century Grüner Veltliner was also grown on the slopes around Nierstein. At that time, it displaced the old Heunisch variety from the slopes, as the Veltliner produced enormous yields. "Later, the winegrowers replaced it with Silvaner because they expected even larger harvests."

But the Grüner Veltliner is not at all related to its other namesakes such as the Roter, the Frühroter and the Weißer Veltliner, as court gardener Metzger once assumed. He thought that Grüner Veltliner was a regional "variety" of the Red, whose variation would be caused by the soil and the age of the vines. Vine researchers have now been able to prove with DNA analyses that the Traminer variety is its parent variety, but the father remains lost. Genetic characteristics suggest that the Rote Veltliner could be at least one of the grandparents. But nothing has been proven.

Grüner Veltliner% © ÖWM

When and how the grape variety first came to Germany is also hardly clear. Johann Metzger provided a possible explanation as early as 1827: "Johann Casimir von der Churpfalz had Balteliner vines, probably between 1583 and 1592, brought from Bältelin in South Tyrol to the Heidelberg area and had them planted there, and it is probably from there that the Balteliner vines, which are widespread in the Rheingauge areas, originated." Whether it is true is untested today.

German Veltliner is still a rarity: at present, apart from Strub and Koegler, only the Karl-Heinz Frey vineyard in Guntersblum grows the vine with the red-white-red image. It is possible that it will soon be found more often: Strub and Koegler report unanimously that other winegrowers in their area are also experimenting with Grüner Veltliner. In that respect, they both see themselves well prepared. "In the end, I planted the vines for my sons, because they will only produce the highest quality in ten or twenty years," says Ferdinand Koegler. Walter Strub also remains relaxed. "We have now gained eight years of experience in growing and cultivating. The others have to start from scratch."

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