As tasted in June, 2011, the 2009 Gruner Veltliner Tradition features nutty, malted richness along with notes of tobacco and leather all typical for this late-bottled cuvee made in an intentionally oxidative and in other respects old-fashioned style (for more about which, please consult my report in issue 160). But a surprisingly overt fruitiness of mirabelle and watermelon emerges on the lees-enriched, subtly silken palate. Smoky-sweet pungency of tobacco and bites of Szechuan pepper add counterpoint to the wine’s long finish, joined by a hint of caramel that I suspect portends the direction in which this bottling will develop over the next 8-10 years. (The style of wine Moosbrugger is attempting to replicate was designed precisely with longevity in mind, but since the “Tradition” project has only run since 2001, it’s too early for any of the resulting wines to have become fatigued and thereby demonstrate their aging limit!) Michael Moosbrugger pointed out to me this June that those who wait until the second half of November to harvest – by which time he tries always to have finished most of his picking – nearly always incur additional concentration of acidity through frost, which then requires compensatory additional hang time to soften. And 2010 flirted with frost already in October, although luckily the weather cooperated through most of November. High acids were dealt with in the estate wines – where deemed necessary – by permitting some lots to undergo malo-lactic transformation. It’s hard to believe in retrospect how rapidly after taking over Schloss Gobelsburg in 1996, Moosbrugger – with several initial years of collaboration by Willi Brundlmayer – brought this ancient monastic estate to the forefront of Austrian viticulture. But some of the things he claims to have only properly appreciated in very recent years and says will have a profound influence on future wines sound deceptively simple. In the matter of yields, for example, Moosbrugger opines that it took a while to acquire and genuinely appreciate the insight “not to have too many bunches of grapes, but also not too few. In 2006, for instance, we probably had too few. With a few more clusters per vine, the wines are intensive enough, and the alcohol isn’t too elevated.” It’s hard to argue in the face of the balance and expressiveness Moosbrugger has achieved in such dramatically different and distinctively difficult vintages as 2009 and 2010. He is, incidentally, no partisan of entirely organic viticulture, believing in particular that for combating peronospora (downy mildew) certain synthetic systemic and topical treatments are both more effective and environmentally superior to a default use of copper sulfate.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300