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South Styria has enjoyed some very fine vintages in recent times, but 2019 is likely to surpass the years before it. When you review the wines from 2017 and 2018, you might get the impression that this is actually difficult to achieve at Tement, but once you taste your way through 2019, you realise that things can become even more complex, even more elegant and even more vibrant. 2019 is something like the quintessence of the two preceding vintages.
Fungal pressure rose rapidly, and the entire team was working non-stop. Things only really relaxed in mid-August, when the weather finally became consistently warm. Whatever happened before, the true quality of a vintage is ultimately decided in autumn, and by mid-September, beautifully ripe grapes hung on the vines. But the first week of harvest „was something to be avoided,“ as Armin Tement put it: „Rain and moisture challenged us. We had to remove a lot in the vineyard. After this modest start, we were really fortunate with the weather for a long time.“ For an autumn in South Styria, temperatures remained exceptionally low. At night they hovered around 2 °C, during the day barely more than 15 °C. This kept the acidity levels perfect until 19 October, when the last grapes arrived at the winery.
The Vintage in the Cellar
Because of the nearly perfect and quite high acidity levels, the Tements decided to play a bit more with the phenolic structure of the wines; in other words, they significantly extended the skin contact times in some cases. Maceration times do bring more grip, firmness and structure to the wines, but they consume acidity. In warm years you have to be very careful about this, but in 2019 the Tements were able to afford six hours instead of the usual three for Welschriesling, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay, and even 18 hours instead of 12 for Sauvignon Blanc – with destemmed grapes.
As usual, the individual lots were pressed slowly for around four hours and the wines were transferred into their respective containers after settling. No wine was sulphited before bottling. Only shortly before that was a small amount of bottling sulphur added.
Before that, however, the wines were allowed to remain on the fine lees for around two years, during which they also underwent malolactic fermentation. Almost all wines were aged in larger or smaller multi-year and mostly neutral wooden barrels. Only the Gelber Muskateller matured in stainless steel.
„Wine along a line“ is the motto of Tement. This line can be clearly recognised again in 2019. The handwriting is clear, the great effort is understandable in order to achieve a result that, despite great power and complexity, always appears playfully light.
The Characteristics of the 2019 Vintage at Tement
When Armin Tement compares the last three vintages, he likes to start with the flagship wine: „With the Zieregg Sauvignon Blanc, 2017 was brutally straight with pronounced acidity and also present tannin structure. 2018 had much more texture and fruit because the grapes carried higher ripeness. 2019 has slightly higher acidity than 2017, the tannins are as strict as in 2018, but the 2019s show themselves much finer, have more elegance, they are more complex and more playful than the other two vintages.“
This typicity runs through all the wines, though the Grassnitzberg can be particularly highlighted, as the cool vineyard site has produced a very linear, bright, almost wiry wine even for 2019, but one in which immense power and depth slumber. The Morillon Zieregg is hardly inferior to the Zieregg Sauvignon Blanc in its complexity and austerity, whilst the Morillon Rossberg and the Morillon Sulz now appear much more inviting. This openness, the gentle warmth and the more intense fruit are also found in the Weißburgunder Sulz.
Outstanding examples of the class that Welschriesling can achieve are the Veithansl and especially the Weinstock. What character wines! The skin contact time becomes even more apparent here; for the Welsch shows it with pronounced phenolics and a certain natural wine character. There is plenty of salinity – a result of the longer skin contact time, which positively characterises all wines and charges them with great drinkability. Equally remarkable, indeed absolutely worth discovering, are the Gelbe Muskateller and the Gewürztraminer. Both are already real crowd-pleasers when young. But that is only the surface. You can sense the potential in them that still slumbers, which the wines will carry playfully over the next ten years with increasing complexity. Finally, the Tements present a single-vineyard wine from the Slovenian part of the estate. The Ciringa Pruh (pronounced: Pruch) from pure coral limestone was also aged in barrel for 66 months after lengthy skin contact and shines with vibrant energy, deep fruit, fine spice and the flint overtone typical of a Ciringa.
Exclusive: «Zeitspiel 4»
Finally, there is the wine from the Zeitspiel series, bottled exclusively for our German importer, to report. The Zeitspiel 4 is the next Sauvignon Blanc Late Release following the Zeitspiel 2. Whilst the Zeitspiel 2 was something like a house wine late release from 2017, the Zeitspiel 4 is a long-aged village wine from the shell limestone terroir from Ehrenhausen. The 2017 vintage, already described above as very straight, benefits immensely from four years of ageing in wood, stainless steel and in bottle. The pure and linear character remains, but it gains the immense charm that a Sauvignon Blanc from South Styria undoubtedly possesses.
Text and wine expertise: Christoph Raffelt