Ried Grassnitzberg Reserve Sauvignon Blanc Erste STK Lage 2017 – Tement

The Grassnitzberg vineyard is a closed basin site at 300-420 metres above sea level with sandy-loamy weathered soils. The Grassnitzberg is not only Tement's oldest vineyard, but also the coolest compared to the Blatsch, Zieregg, Ciringa and Wielitschberg, and always produces taut, acidic wines that are a pleasure to drink. The special 2017 vintage was the reason to separately vinify the single and Tement's original parcel Riff for this reserve wine. The grapes were selectively harvested by hand and then subjected to a maceration period. The reserve from the old vines matures in the best years for 42 months in large wood on the fine lees and reflects the character of the old vines, the poor soil, the style of the house and the enormous development potential of a great wine from first sites.

Bright straw yellow, radiant and clear.

With great calm, the 2017 Ried Grassnitzberg Reserve appears cohesive and clear. Any attempt to break it down olfactorily into fragments must fail - it has become over too long a period of time what it is at the moment and promises to become. The variety reveals itself with a certain understatement only at second glance and tells more about the development and Tement's signature than about the terroir or its origin. There is no bragging about fruit here, instead it radiates a certain adolescence and contemplation that cannot be summed up from individual aromas. More spice than fruit with a manifest structure, that's how you could put the wine into words before either putting it upside down in the decanter or letting it disappear in the cellar for a few years.

Powerful with immense inner tension and decent pressure, it flows over the palate of the taster and shines through the uncompromising compression of aroma and structure. Defined and muscular, it oscillates between precisely defined appearance and floating elegance. With subtly pulsating bass, it is tartly flanked by the fine phenolic, the compact and extract-rich leptosome fruit accelerated by its strikingly saline acid arc. Pointed, without ornamentation and yet unparalleled in its precision, it seeks accompaniment to the table at eye level.