Second in a series of aperitif wines served at the Kessler Cassoulet Dinner 2015.
Franz Hirtzberger Grūner Veltliner, Smaragd, Wachau 2005
It’s a thing of wonder when you open a great bottle of Grūner at that moment when it is just beginning to go through the transformation from adolescence to adulthood and makes that leap to maturity, when the texture begins to soften from its green starkness and an almost-asparagus begins to assert itself, and the texture turns from lean and green and totally acidic to a softer, milder, significantly more mellow and entirely different expression. It’s the kind of thing that makes you want to believe in magic. Depending on your gender orientation, this quite lovely Grūner has been wine mitzvahed, has celebrated its Quinceanera, or has stepped out of the closet. This is gorgeous wine I could drink all evening long. It is the essence of green.