Schloss Maissau- Ried Steinwandl 2021

Vintage: 2021
Varietal: Grüner-Veltliner
Appellation: Weinviertel DAC
Vineyard Designation: Ried Steinwandl
Sulphur (SO2): free 22mg/L - total 72mg/L
Sugar: Dry
Acid: 6.5 g/L
pH: 3.29
Production Size: 3,000 bottles
Altitude: 330m (1083 ft)
Vineyard Age: 41 years
Residual Sugar: 1.5 g/L
Tannin: None
Alcohol %: 13

Grapes are farmed organically (ECOCERT) and have been certified since 2016. The grapes are hand-picked in the vineyard Steinwandl (Stein = stone; wandl = wall) vineyard. The vineyard is next to a big granite wall with a lot of granite also in the subsoil. Harvest time was on the 30th of September 2021.

Soil Type(s): Granite

When hand-selected grapes come into the cellar they are destemmed and crushed. The press is sealed to leave the berries for 12 hours of contact with the juice during the slow press to extract more of the typical peppery and ripe aromas from the skins. There is no use of sulphur or other additions to the grapes or must. The juice is inoculated with a neutral and natural yeast to start the fermentation as soon as possible. The fermentation is controlled by temperature at 21°C (70°F). After about 20 days of fermentation, the wine is still in the tank on the lees. It stays there without sulphur for 6 months, then pumped into a different stainless steel tank, topped, and sulfured. Last, the wine ages on the fine lees for the next 3 months until bottling.

The Schloss Maissau is a small passion project of the Gruber family. They had the opportunity to manage, farm and make wine from the very old vineyards next to the historic 13th century Schloss Maissau castle. In fact, they have documents from year 1114 that reference these vineyards. In 2006, the current caretaker of the castle approached Ewald's dad to revitalize the production of the wines from the castle's grounds. It took seven years to get the chemicals out of the ground, 3 more to apply for organic status. They are certified organic with the 2016 vintage onwards. In total they have 5 hectares and make 4000 cases of Grüner Veltliner wine.

White fish, Scallops, Fresh veggies, Steamed veggies, Cauliflower steaks, Trout, Brandade

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