Rainer Wess Grüner Veltliner, Kremstal 2021

Rainer Wess initially studied oenology at Klosterneuburg in the 1980s, and then went to work in various vineyards in Bordeaux. He moved back to Austria in the late 1990s and fell in love with the vineyards of the Wachau and Kremstal, finally purchasing vineyards of his own in 2003.

He purchased 10ha of vineyards in both Kremstal and Wachau. From the outset the focus was on riesling and grüner veltliner, and carefully trying to match these varieties with the perfect plots within vineyards so that the wines might express great terroir. The vines are farmed very carefully with little if any chemicals used, and at harvest the grapes are hand picked. Today, his brilliant winemaker daughter Christina and son-in-law David have taken over the rains from Rainer and continue to bring the terroir into the bottle in as unadulterated and as pure a form as possible.

The winery is housed in a monastery’s ancient cellar right in the middle of the famed Sandgrube vineyard in Krems. Rainer added a new gravity-flow grape-reception facility to the old building in order to ensure that grapes were processed in the gentlest way possible, without pumps. The juice and wine is carefully handled without any oak, which enhances the purity they seek.