"In what has already revealed itself as among the most exciting developments for Austrian Riesling this millennium, Dominique and Urban Stagård took charge in 2006 at his mother’s family’s Krems-Stein estate, which occupies the medieval Krems press house of the Tegernseer, one of several Bavarian monastic institutions that together first put wines from the Wachau on the international map .... 40% of the Stagårds’ acreage is planted with Grüner Veltliner, so that it makes up a bit over half of their volume. But their focus is nevertheless on Riesling, the principal subject of their single-site bottlings, which follow in one of the longest series of such bottlings anywhere in the Krems area or Wachau, Urban Stagård’s great-grandfather having already bottled pure Rieslings labeled for Steiner Hund and Schreck. Stagård is among three of five landholders in Steiner Hund to bottle a wine from that legendary site. Their impressively steep, concave Gaisberg, leased from a retiree, is separated from the rest of that official vineyard site, with woods on two sides but well ventilated and planted with 60-year-old Riesling vines. Old, terraced Riesling vineyards are being restored - and more planted - in the Braunsdorfer Warte high above Stein’s Grillenparz and Goldberg, two more sites where, along with Schreck, the Stagård’s Riesling holdings are being expanded, in part through planting with old Mosel vine selections.
Following the procedure of his grandfather, Stagård gives all but a few bread-and-butter cuvées a full year of élevage, during which malolactic fermentation may take place (as it did almost universally in 2014, but in 2013 with only two wines). Nor are the Stagårds overly concerned if their Rieslings finish with a bit of residual sugar …. A particular interest of the young Stagårds - who otherwise rely, for now at least, on tanks - is fermentation and aging in huge stoneware crocks of a sort traditional in Germany and Austria for storing oil, schnapps and other comestibles. A Riesling cuvée from their collective top sites is named ‘Steinzeug’ for these antique vessels, and the couple plans to expand their usage as more come their way.”
David Schildknecht, Vinous |
