In the Austrian vineyard, rocks in the soil help determine the vine's ability to find water; retain heat and return it to the grapes and vines. Rocks also facilitate the exchange of inorganic nutrients and determine the soil's pH. These rocky soils produce mineral wines that taste of wildflowers and Alpine herbs.
Werk, in German, can be the creation of something, though it isn't necessarily the same as work; that word is Arbeit. Werk is more of an artistic endeavor, like Kunstwerk, or a "work" of art, whereas Arbeit is the physical labor. Think of it this way: it took Arbeit to make ROCKWERK, but Werk is what's in your glass.
The wine in your glass, which was poured from a tall, slender bottle with a little Italian garden gnome on the label, has a story. Wine is my life, you see. Not as a grower or a winemaker, I grew up in the American Midwest, where there are some fine restaurants, passionate wine drinkers, and even a few vineyards, but it's not exactly the Napa Valley either.
As a teenager, I liked restaurants, chefs, and watching the early years of Food Network. It's thrilling, as a 15-year-old, to flambé Steak Diane or Bananas Foster tableside, or at least I thought so, one of my first jobs. Occasionally, one of the cool college-aged dining room captains would bring a bottle to the table, sometimes in a basket, pushed on a cart, with a corkscrew, carafe, and candle. What a scene, I thought. I knew I had to become one of those captains.
At one of my early sommelier jobs, an importer walked into the restaurant with a bag of Austrian wines, and proceeded to pour me the most extraordinary wines I'd ever tasted. To my young palate, they weren't anything like the German wines I had tried; they were dry and minerally tasting. Some were Riesling, but when I asked about the peppery taste of a new wine, the importer said,
"That's Grüner Veltliner!"
Laser focus at the Heurige, circa 2008
Grüner Veltliner is Austria's most planted grape variety. Austria is a small landlocked European country in the Alps, or at least most of it is the Alps. It is best known to Americans for Vienna, The Sound of Music, and skiing. The part that isn't the Alps is where the wine grows, in the east near the borders of Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.
One area you probably already know from those riverboat cruise commercials that is especially famous for its wine is the Danube River valley. "Sailing through the heart of cities and landscapes," you'll pass through a region of terraces and castles, with vines planted all around. This is the Danube Valley, and most of those vines are planted to Grüner Veltliner.
Back to that tasting with the importer, Grüner Veltliner was new to me, but it was new to most wine drinkers in the United States. It was the early 2000s, and Grüner Veltliner had yet to become a household name. It's not that it suddenly came out of nowhere; it's an ancient natural crossing of Traminer and an obscure variety called St Georgener-Rebe, born from the annals of Austro-Hungary, and was probably always around as a component in the field blends of Europe before varietal wines became popular.
In the 1950s, a new winegrowing system, Hochkultur, took hold in Austria. This system modernized Austrian wine growing after World War II when rebuilding and improving efficiency were necessary. The grape that played a significant role in Hochkultur was Grüner Veltliner. Austrian wine went on modernizing— maybe a little too far —then halted briefly before its return in the 1990s and early 2000s. I remember speaking with other Chicago sommeliers at the time.
"Have you tasted FX Pichler?" I asked Scott Tyree.
"Yes, but do you know Knoll?"
"What about Loimer?” I said.
“Yes, but what about "Bründlmayer?!" Fernando Beteta replied.
It was all new, but the sommeliers of that era immediately loved it.
I always included Austrian wines on my wine lists. Grüner Veltliner became a must-have pairing on spring-tasting menus. It's springtime when the variety shines, pairing beautifully with spring greens and a light vinaigrette, English peas on toast, asparagus with a poached egg, and shaved radish salad with mint. Grüner Veltliner can match the most difficult-to-pair ingredients like artichokes and bitter greens, and it's stunning when sockeye Salmon comes into season in early summer. Grüner Veltliner is the sommelier's friend.
After many years and wine adventures since my first sip of Grüner Veltliner as a young sommelier in Chicago, I was walking through a vineyard in Südtirol/Alto Adige named Söll/Sella. This was not Austria, but northern Italy, where everything has two names because what was Austria later became Italy, and the German language stuck. As I walked, I looked to the ground where a winegrower had placed a small garden Gnome perched on a rock next to a vine.
Out of scale and all too funny, I snapped his picture:
I don't know how much you know about Gnomes, but they're helpful little creatures. They look over our gardens when we sleep or are away and ensure the health and balance of the natural world. Chat GPT adds, "It's important to remember that Gnomes are just folktales and are not real creatures," but I'm not so sure.
The Gnome you see on the bottle of ROCKWERK sure makes a tasty Grüner Veltliner!
ROCKWERK comprises 90% Traisental, with small components of Kremstal and Weinviertal, three of the eight wine regions found within Lower Austria.
With its cool climate and limestone soil, Traisental is sometimes called the "Chablis of the Danube. " Like Chablis, the wines from here have a distinctive mineral taste.
ROCKWERK tastes much like the place: clean Alpine air, the forest and minerals.
When I taste ROCKWERK, I taste the ROCKS visible on the ground, the forest above the terraces, and the wildflowers growing in the fields.
Then there's this unusual taste of peppercorn or radish, or to some, it’s like celery. It's a quality particular to certain grape varieties that live in the skin called Rotundone. It comes through in some Grüner Veltliner wines, and it's present in ROCKWERK, thanks to a short, 4-hour maceration on the skins before fermentation. It gives ROCKWERK unmistakable VeltlinerPfeffer taste.
After macerating the juice with the skins, Huber makes ROCKWERK just as he does his own wines with spontaneous fermentation via Pied de Cuve in stainless steel tanks to preserve freshness, then bottling it with a screwcap closure. Most Grüner Veltliner made in this style is meant to be enjoyed in its first few years. Still, ROCKWERK will develop a round, waxy, chamomile-like taste as it ages. It can be cellared for up to 10 years before freshness gives way to total vinosity.
ROCKWERK is made by observing economic, ecological and social principles.
From the vineyard to the final bottle, the entire production process is evaluated for its contribution to sustainability and in compliance with the European Commission’s European Green Deal requirements.
In the European tradition, ROCKWERK is best enjoyed at the table.
Perfect with uncomplicated dishes like baked cod with a squeeze of lemon or, if you're feeling especially Austrian, a schnitzel of veal or pork.
Channel your inner sommelier and think of ROCKWERK Grüner Veltliner whenever a green vegetable appears. Don't hesitate to pair it with Vietnamese takeout, which is common at my house. In the cold of winter, chill a bottle of ROCKWERK in the snow and transport yourself to a Tirolean mountain ski hut, and on the hottest summer day, be Austrian, and mix ROCKWERK with sparkling water, 50/50, and a slice of lime.
Dedicated to the grower, without whom no wine is possible, ROCKWERK is the passion project of three partners:
Master Sommelier Jesse Becker has worked for some of the top restaurants in the United States. Serving as an ambassador to Germany's VDP he frequently writes and lectures on the wines of Germany and Austria. Jesse is the U.S. Sales Manager for Veritable Wines & Estates and is based in Chicago, Illinois.
An award winning winemaker, including Falstaff Winemaker of the Year, Markus Huber is our consulting winemaker as well as head of the family run and Certified Sustainable Weingut Markus Huber in Traisental.
Based in Hattenheim, Christian Ress is the fifth generation and current director of family owned Weingut Balthasar Ress, the largest organic wine estate in Hessen as well as founder of private wine club, WineBANK.
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