The Incomparable Gobelsburg Tradition 1-17-24

“The ‘Tradition’ wines are an ode to the winemaking style being employed at Gobelsburg in the early 19th century – specifically the years between 1800 and 1850. This period is characterised by the era of baroque, where intense aromatisation in vinfication was being practiced.” – Winery note
 
We wine industry nerds love to talk of wines as “hands off” in style or made “in the vineyard.” Yet these platitudes ignore that, lest the grapes be left for the birds, human intervention is required to make the liquid in your glass. Though the soil, climate, season, and vines bless us with their fruits, it is the labor of many hands that craft them into wine.
 
Perhaps by running away from industrial wine, we have allowed the pendulum to swing too far in the other direction. We reach back for an idyllic that never was. We reject the ulta-processed by utterly invalidating the role of the winemaker. This leaves us mired in falsehoods and fantasy, conflating taint with terroir. We need a middle way.
 
Michael Moosbrugger of Schloss Gobelsburg offers us a perfectly timed response to our post-industrial floundering with the greatest iteration of his Tradition wines to date. He offers us a glimpse at the Romantic era concept of winemaking. This approach sees the winemaker as the teacher of the wines, whose role is to raise them to their full potential as they move from harvest to fermentation to bottle to out the cellar door. We could not ask for a finer guide than this unassuming Austrian. Those familiar with his original concept of the Tradition line know that the wines are made in homage to techniques meticulously recorded over centuries by the monks. Like all great teachers, he grows along with his students, learning from his pupils just as much as from the dusty documents.
 
His latest releases are the 3 Years, 10 Years, and 50 Years. These wines whole-heartedly embrace the Romantic winemaking style of the past, through the knowledge Moosbrugger has honed over twenty-five years studying the ancient vines, crafting their wines, and delving into the records of the monastery:
 
“To create the blend, many bottles of the wine library were opened, tasted and decanted into small vessels that were then, little by little, blended into a cuvée. ‘It demands a clarity of vision and long years of experience with the wines of the Danube River region to compose a cuvée of this style… The different soils and the various grape varieties demand an understanding of their nature and their functionality in a blend, in order to create a wine like this.'” -Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
 
Nothing can compare to his work, mission, or resulting wines. To paraphrase Stephan Reinhardt of the Wine Advocate, they are unlike any other. Yet these are not exceptional in funky and inscrutable ways. These are simply in a class above and apart from all others, as striking in their elegance and complexity as they are in their ability to move both your mind and soul.
 
“There is no wine on this planet that is similar in style.” -Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
 
Tradition Wines In Stock Now from Gobelsburg:
 
Schloss Gobelsburg Tradition Heritage Cuvee 3 Year, Niederosterreich 750ml $59 special, 5 bottles in stock now
Stephan Reinhardt-Wine Advocate 96 points “The NV Tradition Heritage Cuvée 3 Years Edition 850 is a multi-vintage blend based on the 2018 vintage combined with the 2016 Renner and the 2016 Gaisberg. The inaugural bottling displays a golden-yellow color along with a rich, highly refined and flinty bouquet of great complexity, intensity and charm. Nothing reductive here—this is as seductive as Tannhäuser’s Venusberg, and there is nothing but temptation due to some Traminer-like aromas. Enormously rich and refined on the palate, this is an intense and powerful yet also substantial white of great complexity, grip and tension. The texture is almost oily but mineral-vital and elegant, whereas the unity of fine mineral acidity and tannin structure develops a spectacularly long finish that intermediately made me think of a Sporen Alsace Grand Cru. This is a sustainable cuvée whose parts were racked every six months from one cask to another. Tasted at the domaine in June and again in July and August 2021.”
 
Schloss Gobelsburg Tradition Heritage Cuvee 10 Year, Niederosterreich 750ml $179 special, 7 bottles in stock now
Stephan Reinhardt-Wine Advocate 98 points “Based on 2010 Renner Grüner Veltliner, with a 5% part of Gaisberg Riesling, the intensely yellow-colored NV Tradition Heritage Cuvée 10 Years Edition 850 offers a deep, pure, intense, concentrated, beautifully aromatic, spicy-floral and Traminer-like bouquet of white and yellow stone fruits, yellow rose petals as well as cloves, wax and refreshing flinty aromas. Rich, intense and highly elegant on the beautifully balanced and aromatic palate, this is a pure, vital, finessed and salty-mineral as well as tensioned and sustainable cuvée with a young, still tannic texture and remarkable oak and nougat flavors. This finely tannic 10 Years cuvée seems to be much younger and bottled from smaller barrels than the “3 years edition” sibling. There is no wine on this planet that is similar in style. The fruit is Austrian, very charming and irresistible, but the structure and texture builds the bridge to France—or more precisely Alsace and Burgundy, regions that Michael Moosbrugger adores but never would try to copy. Tasted at the domain in June and again at home in July and August 2021.”
 
Schloss Gobelsburg Tradition Heritage Cuvee 50 Year, Niederosterreich 1.5L $449 special, 1 magnum in stock now
Stephan Reinhardt-Wine Advocate 98 points “Intensely golden-yellow in color, the NV Tradition Heritage Cuvée 50 Years Edition 850 blends several grape varieties and a wide range of vintages from the last 50 years, starting with the 1970 vintage. The nose opens precise, lean and fresh, with bright and spicy fruit and flinty notes. On the palate, this treasure is crystalline, tight, reductive and very elegant, with a long and tensioned finish. This Jubilee edition reveals remarkable finesse and grip and represents the historical spirit and substance of the castle. Due to the matured wines from the 1970s and 1980s, this is a leaner, more filigreed style than the newer assemblages that contain only barrel-stored reserve wines from the Michael Moosbrugger era. The wine is doubtlessly very impressive. To create the blend, many bottles of the wine library were opened, tasted and decanted into small vessels that were then, little by little, blended into a cuvée. ‘It demands a clarity of vision and long years of experience with the wines of the Danube River region to compose a cuvée of this style,’ says Moosbrugger. ‘The different soils and the various grape varieties demand an understanding of their nature and their functionality in a blend, in order to create a wine like this.’
“Thirty-three percent of the cuvée is from vintages of the most recent decade (2011, 2013, 2014 and 2017), 37% from 2000, 2002-2005, 2007 and 2009), 7% from the 1990s (1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999), 12% from the 1980s (1980, 1981-1984, 1986, 1987, 1989) and 11% from the 1970s (1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1977 and 1979). As Michael Moosbrugger says, ‘The Jubilee cuvée combines 25 years of monastic culture with 25 years of modern wine culture.’ (Moosbrugger started at Schloss Gobelsburg in 1996, so exactly 25 years ago.) Grape varieties are not really important here, but to make history complete, here they are: Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Grüner Sylvaner, Muskat Sylvaner (Sauvignon Blanc), Riesling Sylvaner (Müller-Thurgau), Welschriesling, Muskat Ottonen, Trainer and Muskateller (Muscat à petit grains). Tasted in June and September 2021.”
 
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