The Knoll 2007 Gruner Veltliner Beerenauslese offers dusty, smoky, aggressive botrytis notes over top of lemon zest, pineapple, persimmon, and brown spices. Pungently concentrated and oily in texture, this displays obvious desiccation and botrytization of berries, finishing with grip but considerable bitterness. Will time shape it into something more refined? Like many of their neighbors, the Knolls harvested Federspiel already in late September, but then largely sat out the rains for three weeks before commencing to pick Smaragd. Botrytis-affected clusters were segregated and pressed immediately, and even the entirely healthy portion of the crop was given less skin contact than usual. A few botrytized rows or parcels were left to hang for nobly sweet wine (in a vintage where few Wachauer followed suit) although not from Riesling. I continue to long for the return of a vintage wherein the Knoll Gruner Veltliner outshines their Riesling, as has not happened for some years now. As has once again become the norm here, none of the Smaragd (save for the Muskateller) were bottled before late summer of last year, and my most recent notes are from cask (or occasionally tank).Importer: Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334-6700

Knoll’s 2004 Gruner Veltliner Beerenauslese evinces an overtly fungal note on the nose, along with peach and rhubarb preserves and a hint of baking spices. On the palate, white pepper joins the brown spices in coating the jammy fruit, and the wine finishes with an impressively long, satisfying as well as intriguing counterpoint of bitter and sweet, jammy and tart fruit, all drenched in honey, spices, and a touch of white pepper. Observers of the Austrian scene who have not yet tasted one of these rare, nobly rotten, liqueur-like essences of the Gruner Veltliner grape simply do not know what they are missing. Importer: Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334-6700