Gritschenberg 2017 – about grandma´s hamster stories
The current vintage 2017 of our Blaufränkisch Gritschenberg is our personal darling, a milestone in our red wine vinification and one of those vintages people will still talk about in years. A chalky length and elegance are combined in a rare way with a lot of pressure and crystal-clear fruit. Ripe and almost sweet tannins support the wine and the juiciness contribute to its drinkability.
Although the Gritschenberg is one of our serious wines, the “wild gigantic-hamster-ankle-tweak-story” of our grandma always put a smile on our face when we tell wine drinkers where the name “Gritsch” comes from.
During our grandma’s time nobody was thinking about Wachau wineries when the heard the word “Gritsch”, they were thinking about a field hamster. In east Austria they were called “Gritschen”. These field hamsters were spread so widely in Jois that they named a vineyard after them. The “Gritsch” aka hamster were pretty defensive and they could bite fiercely when you came too close to there home in the vineyard. At least that is what our grandma told us. No wonder that they were so aggressive the agricultural industrialisation after the war changed their habitat in a way that they are gone now.
A hamster is our Gritschenberg 2017 in the matter of good scores in tastings. He almost scored off the Jungenberg Blaufränkisch and he also got some good international scorings.
96 points from Wine Enthusiast or 95 points from Meiningers Sommelier are as important as the 96 points from Falstaff or 95 points from A la Carte in Austria.
On the Gritschenberg everything started with a vineyard with only 3 rows, which were planted by our granddad in the 1960s. He resisted the typical advice “Blaufränkisch belongs on loam and needs water. It will not work on stones. You will not harvest a lot.” As if this was not enough, he used a loose-berry clone of Blaufränkisch, which provides really small, intense berries. In the meantime, we reproduce these vines via “selection massale” in our newly planted vineyards. Also, our cultivated area on the Gritschenberg grew due to our pure fascination about the amazing terroir. We just planted a new vineyard with vines from this old selection last year and we can not wait to harvest the first grapes next year.
A lot of good things happened with the 2017 vintage. The best thing was that from the first moment it was clear: It had to be a great wine and it did not disappoint us in any phase. Farmost the best: He is still available to buy!
