TRADITION RIESLING
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.
This concept of Romantic aromatisation inspired the idea of pure nature and the ‘pure’ taste. Winemakers of this time were looking back at an empirical knowledge of nearly 2000 years of winemaking. It was also a period marked in the middle of the century by the upcoming industrialisation boom that led to more and more technology being used in the cellar resulting in a change in the craftsmanship side of winemaking. This development set the stage for modern day winemaking, which focuses on the question of aromas and fruit components.
DOWNLOADS
AWARDS & TASTING NOTES
JAMESSUCKLING.COM: Rating 90
A riper, headier style of riesling that shows mango dessert, apple crumble, butterscotch and dried flowers. Full bodied and very oily on the palate, with clear weightness and muscle.
VINTAGE 2016
JAMESSUCKLING.COM: Rating 95
A very sophisticated dry riesling with a ton of delicate spicy notes. This is just beginning to open up after a 18 month maturation in barrel. The peach and herbal aromas are still restrained, but on the palate there´s great textural complexity and the elegant finish is really long and subtle. Drink or hold.
VINTAGE 2015
VINTAGE 2014
KAMPTAL WINE TROPHY: 3rd Place
Download: Certificate (pdf, 696 kb)
VINARIA WEINGUIDE: 3/5 Stars
FALSTAFF: Rating 95
A LA CARTE: Rating 94
GAULT MILLAU: Rating 18/20
VINTAGE 2013
A LA CARTE: Grand Cru Riesling Tasting, Category Riesling Reserve – Rating 94
Download: Certificate (pdf 332 kB)
VINOUS/David Schildknecht: Rating 91-92
Like its Grüner Veltliner counterpart due to have been bottled along with most of the top Gobelsburg 2014 whites, this back-to-the-future interpretation of Gaisberg exhibits a striking combination of bright, active, tart citricity and gooseberry crunch with smoky, stony underpinnings. Formidably energetic and persistent, it comes off as a bit more primary and reminiscent of a “normal” handling of Riesling fruit than have other installments in the ongoing “Tradition” series. There is obviously tremendous potential here but enough youthful jumpiness, severity and austerity to suggest that one wait a few years before taking the second peek.
FALSTAFF: Rating 93-95
VINTAGE 2012
VIKTOR SIEGL:
Still extremely youthful and slightly yeasty tones, but full of vibrancy, a true abundance of bright fruit nuances, a duet of vineyard peaches and old pear varieties, chic, elegant lines, fruity-sweet and balanced, full-bodied and multilayered, constantly sparkles with new facets, will grow even more subtle and join the ranks of the best traditional Rieslings.
PARKER / WINE ADVOCATE: Rating 95
Believe me or not, but the 2012 Riesling Tradition, which keeps its true origin as a useless secret (Niederösterreich), is the finest and most subtle Austrian Riesling I have tasted this summer. The nose is very Burgundian in its purity, elegance and subtle expression of fruit and mineral-rich terroir (which is the Kammerner Gaisberg by the way). It shows the purity, multi-facetedness, noblesse and serenity of a great wine which does not care about primary fruit aromas (like the 2013 Erste Lage Gaisberg does in a lovely way), but reveals enormously subtle flavors of flowers, herbs, crystalline stones and fruits like honeydew, nuts and turkish honey. The palate is highly elegant and perfectly balanced, the taste noble, complex and long without exposing anything else but finesse, elegance and harmony. Going back to younger, more fruit-driven wines from here would be a banal exercise. The old monks knew quite well what they did and they obviously knew what tastes good. “The most important thing about Tradition is not its origin (thus Niederösterreich) but the philosophy of élevage,” says Michi Moosbrugger. But isn’t this the same as if we would talk about how an artist plays the piano without listening to it? Drink: 2014-2029
VINARIA: 5 Stars
GAULT MILLAU: 18,5 Points – 3 Grapes
FALSTAFF: Rating 90-92
VINTAGE 2011
PARKER: Rating 95
The Gobelsburg 2011 Riesling Tradition – subjected to mid-20th century vinification and extended elevage as detailed in my accounts of previous vintages – delivers an almost spirituous evocation of apple along with distilled herbal and floral essences. Apple and honeydew of surprising sheer fruity juiciness for this bottling are garlanded with heliotrope and mingled on a subtly grainy, chewy, phenol-rich yet simultaneously, paradoxically silken palate with toasted grains and inner-mouth, liquid floral and herbal character. There is an underlying richness here that comes out as almost honeyed, an impression to which stony and piquant fruit pit notes lend ideal contrast and counterpoint in a lingering, layered finish soothing yet pulsing with energy. This is far and away the finest-yet of Moosbrugger’s essays in back-to-the-future Riesling. I realize full well that part of the point of this exercise is to revisit an era when selection and handling of raw material were governed by standards of stamina rather than nuance and structure rather than aromatic caprice, but this particular Tradition bottling lets you have it both ways, being forwardly fruity and dazzlingly complex yet probably capable of going the extra mile in bottle, perhaps through 2025. “You can lose yourself in such a wine,” says its usually modest author, and I could not have put it better. That it should emerge from precisely this vintage is amazing, not to mention intriguing.
VIKTOR SIEGL:
Cask sample: Vanilla bean and pear scents comprise a discreet bouquet. Also very vibrant and cool. Equally animated on the palate with notes of verbena and white asparagus. Fleshy, beautifully round and, most of all, elegant. Invigorating acidity finish. Will improve with bottle age – a very good future.
KAMPTAL WINE TROPHY 2013: 2nd Place in Category “Riesling Edelreif”
Download: Certificate (pdf 702kB)
VINARIA TOP TEN: 18,3 points in Riesling Finale
Download: Certificate (pdf 296)
GAULT MILLAU: 18,5 Points – 3 Grapes
VINTAGE 2010
WINE&SPIRITS:
Sturdy and golden, there´s something about this wine that brings up visions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – an opulence that´s not of this century. Tradition is Michael Moosbrugger´s attempt to make wine the way it was pre-WWI, presend gently and fermented without temperature control in Austrian oak. The acidity of 2010 keeps it fresh despite the almost honeyed richness, the flavors ranging from pleasantly vegetal artichoke through to orange and sesame. (91 Punkte)
KAMPTAL WINE TROPHY: 1st Place Category “Riesling Edelreif”
Download: Certificate (pdf, 662kB)
FALSTAFF: 91-93 Points
GAULT MILLAU: 17 Points – 3 Grapes
VINTAGE 2009
GAULT MILLAU: 17 Points – 3 Grapes
PARKER: 92 Points
FALSTAFF: 91-93 Points
VINTAGE 2008
ÖSTERREICHS BESTE WEISSWEINE: 4 Glasses
FALSTAFF: 90-92 Points
GAULT MILLAU: 18 Points – 3 Grapes
VINTAGE 2007
VINARIA: Top Ten
Tasting “Grüner Veltliner & Riesling 2007”
KAMPTAL WINE TROPHY 2009: 1st Place
Category “Riesling Edelreif” 2008
VIKTOR SIEGL:
Earl Grey and lime on the nose with touches of soft stone fruits. Spicy, yet soft-flowing. Highly impressive ‘early’ wine; succulent sugar melon and yellow peach with subtle hints of chestnut and walnut. Irresistibly mellifluous and wonderfully nostalgic with pleasantly balanced acids. Even better after brief bottle aging.
VINARIA: 2 Stars
VINTAGE 2006
FALSTAFF: 90-92 Points
AUSTRIA – WEGWEISER ZUM WEINGENUSS 2008/09 (Manfred Flieser): 3 Glasses
VINARIA: 2 Stars
VINTAGE 2005
WEINWELT: 2 Stars
Very good quality.
FALSTAFF: 92 Points
VINARIA Wineguide 2007/08: 3 Stars
A LA CARTE: 92 Points
GAULT MILLAU: 15.5 Points
VINTAGE 2004
FALSTAFF: 90 Points
VINTAGE 2003