Ingrid Groiss Gemischter Satz Braitenpeuchtorff

From Scott:

Ingrid is the newest hot-shot winemaker to emerge on the Austrian wine scene. She started by taking over the management and winemaking of her grandmother’s vineyards, and she now makes some of the most compelling whites in the Weinwertal. Gemischter Satz is a traditional blend of grapes grown in the same vineyard. This example is made up of about 15 different grapes that are all harvested and co-fermented together. It will soon be a staple in your household, as it is in ours!

From Jancis Robinson:

Ingrid Groiss tried to escape the vineyards and small-village life of Breitenwaida in the Weinviertel north west of Vienna but the call of the vines proved irresistible. 

Her parents and grandmother owned vineyards and made wine for their own Heuriger (a country wine tavern selling young wine on tap) and for private clients and at the age of 15 she wanted to leave home to study at the Klosterneuburg winemaking school. There was one insurmountable problem: there was no dormitory for girls and her parents felt, not surprisingly, that she was too young to live on her own in or near Vienna. So she studied tourism at a nearby college.

Having completed her studies, she started working with her parents and ‘felt like life had already ended … together with my parents in this really, really tiny village surrounded by nothing – here the chicken and foxes say good night to each other – ideally marrying my neighbour who is also a farmer (as an old saying goes: loves goes away, hectares stay) so I had to leave and explore the world.’

After a happy and properous few years working in marketing for Coca Cola and Anheuser Busch in the German cities of Bremen and Berlin, she still felt something was missing – ‘a great life, good payment, a company flat and company car … so what would you expect more from life?’ The inescapable conclusion: ‘What I really desire to do and what my heart beats for: making wine!’

Fortuitously and, from Ingrid’s point of view, ‘as a sign of destiny’, at this time the University of Vienna started a new natural sciences course in Weinbau, Önologie und Weinwirtschaft (viticulture, oenology and wine marketing). Alongside her studies she gained practical experience working with producers such as Domäne Wachau, Birgit Braunstein and Birgit Eichinger. She had started making wine at home but then began the generation game.

As she explains, ‘I had already started making wine at home but with my father, and it was always big discussions and fights because he had his own philosophy and I wanted to improve many things. It didn´t work and so I asked my granny to give me her Schablau vineyard to work and make wine out of it (this was my first own vintage 2010). I had a deal with my father. I said I would work this vineyard in my own philosophy and make the wine in my style and he is not allowed to discuss it. Then we taste all wines together blind and if my wine wins I run the vineyards and make the wines on my own with my philosophy in the next year. My wine won. Now he is happy that he is not responsible for the vineyards and the cellar any more and I´m happy as well (but of course both my mum and my father support me a lot and I´m thankful for this!). Also the philosophy of my parents changed – now we already work the first vineyards organically and my father is proud of this way!’

Groiss is particularly grateful for the ‘gorgeous’ vineyards planted by her granny. ‘Most of them are 50 years and older and in these times people put much more focus on which varieties fit on which appellations and on which soil. I´m also proud that I still have many old autochthonous varieties in my gemischter Satz vineyards like Hietl Rote, Silberweisse, Weisse Vöslauer and Graue Vöslauer (varieties that where planted everywhere in Weinviertel but now nobody knows them any more). And of course I learnt a lot from my granny (there are sooo many things you cannot learn from a book – it´s things you learn from a real long life and lot of experience). She couldn´t sit at home – she always wanted to go in the vineyards with me.’

Waterford commentary:

All of the wine for the Gemischter Satz (field blend) comes from a plot planted in 1951 by Ingrid’s grandmother. At that time, Grandma Groiss’ dream might have been to have a winery of her own. But that dream didn’t come true...until 61 years later. Ingrid, fighting against her parents and the tradition of selling off all their fruit to the local co-op, founded a winery from her grandmother’s vineyards. The results are outstanding.

Its bold aromas of white peaches, lily of the valley, flint, lemongrass, melons and ripe pear fill the glass. Yet the sheer ripe and caressing palate is pushed back afresh with an instantaneous attack of pure minerality, creating a dynamic interplay of fruit, minerals, and acidity that is haunting.

I would say more and try to relate this wine’s extraordinary flavors to its grape constituents. But Ingrid’s grandmother didn’t keep a record of what she planted, and only about half of the varieties have been identified. What I will tell you is that these old vines make amazing grapes, and Ingrid has turned them into amazing wine.

The Braitenpuechtorff is fresh, vibrant, mineral, filled with smells of sweet peas and amaranth, ripe green fruits like papaya, and a zesty, fresh finish of stone fruit and kaffir lime leaf. It drinks as easily as water, yet with the backbone of Chablis. It takes the springlike charm and easy diffidence of the basic and adds weight, drama and richness. Most of us taste Gruner Veltliner that is driven by its mineral backbone. But here is a dry white wine filled with power and fruit, and yet at low alcohol levels. Gruner Veltliner glories in this rich, dramatic style, and this wine is glorious. Don’t miss it.