Darscho 2019

The Darsho is a single-varietal Chardonnay from the Seewinkel region on Lake Neusiedl in Burgenland. The name refers to a salt varnish of the same name on the lake, of which there are about 40 in Seewinkel. They are hollows formed during the Ice Age, in which water and different salts can be found. The vines were planted between 1980 and 2000 in the sandy soils at the lake. Heinz Velich produces there, in addition to the iconic Tiglat the second outstanding Chardonnay in Austria. Since then, the wine, which used to be powerful, has become increasingly fine and elegant. The grapes are harvested by hand at full ripeness, slowly pressed as whole clusters after standing, fermented spontaneously at a relatively warm temperature and aged on full lees in wood for two years.

medium straw yellow with green reflections

The Darsho is a wonderful wine. You can feel that in the first moment. It has the characteristic relaxed and unagitated quality that is typical of Heinz Velich and his wines, without being lacking in tension. After a slightly reductive flinty start, the Chardonnay reminds us of nuts, smoke and some wood, of meadow herbs, broom and hay, limes and peaches, some melon, mango and pineapple. This seems mature and is exactly to the point.

On the palate the Darsho The wine is carried by juicy yellow fruit, with a few splashes of bright fresh lime and pineapple mixed in. The wine actually seems much tighter than expected. In addition, it is carried by the minerality that is so present in Velich's Chardonnays, which one would not actually expect in the Seewinkel. The texture of the wine is silky and creamy with a fine extract and a lemony-salty note in the finish. And involuntarily you think, "This is fine, this is classic, this is timeless and without fashions.