2023 Weingut Neumeister, Sauvignon Blanc “Straden” Vulkenland Steiermark DAC, Styria, Austria.
A surprise top ten white wine of the year, this pale gold/yellow hued 2023 Neumeister Straden Sauvignon Blanc, from Austria’s Styria region in the South part of the country, is an absolutely stunning wine with incredible depth, complexity, richness of layering and ultra crisp detailing plus remarkable purity. This beauty starts with a flinty mineral note, a touch reductive, but oh my does it come alive in the glass with bright gooseberry, lemon/lime, white peach, muskmelon and a hint of tropical fruit leading the way on the full bodied and lovely textural palate, along with orange blossom, wet shale, green pepper, a yeasty element and subtle wood notes. To explain just how good this stuff is you need to throw out some legendary names out there, with Dagueneau and Boulay in the Loire and under the radar favorite Von Winning from the Pfalz, along with another thriller, Quarz by Terlan in Italy’s Alto Adige. You always know when you taste some great, it speaks to you and leaves you in awe, and this is one of the wines, thank you to Jannae Lizza, my friend who works for the importer Rosenthal Wine Merchant, for the introduction to this brilliant Sauvignon Blanc. Winemaker Christoph Neumeister took over from his father Albert in 2006, when he was just 25 years old, and has focused on organic practices and ultra precise cellar practices to craft very age worthy wines, which this wine clearly displays, making for a wine that has plenty of thrills now, but potential can go 15 to 20 years more in bottle. Clarity and terroir are important to Neumeister and he is obviously very gifted with Sauvignon Blanc!
Styria is a Sauvignon Blanc hotspot, and while I usually focus my attention to Austria’s Danube area and the Wachau usually and drink up Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, and or the wines of Burgenland, with Prieler’s Blaufrankisch being a favorite, I should really spend more time getting to know this part of Austria. Neumeister is certainly a winery I’m going to follow from now on, especially after enjoying this exceptional Straden Sauvignon Blanc, coming from the estate’s vines in the Vulkenland Steiermark DAC. Rosenthal says this wine was named after the Neumeister’s hometown of Straden, and that this Ortswein (village wine) exemplifies what is Christoph’s texturally expansive, yet intricately chiseled, style of Sauvignon Blanc. Adding that is was fermented naturally after a two-day maceration on the skins, after which it spent the better part of a year on its fine lees in a combination of used oak, including 500L and 2,500L capacity casks. Rosenthal continues, noting that Neumeister is based In the southeast corner of Vulkanland Steiermark, Austria, close to where Slovenia’s northwest corner meets Hungary’s southwest corner, where third-generation winegrower Christoph Neumeister farms 30 hectares of vines spread over numerous steep hillsides around his hometown of Straden. The vines were planted at altitudes of 340 to 380 meters above sea level on soils, that are very diverse, with volcanic basalt, hence the name of the region, some sandy loam, chalky limestone and sandstone, all of which influence the characteristics of the finished wine, as seen in this distinctive terroir driven offering. I really hope to explore some well aged versions of Neumeister’s Sauvignon Blanc in the future and I highly recommend chasing down a few bottles of this one, which is a ridiculous value.
($32 Est.) 95 Points, grapelive