2018 Martin Muthenthaler Ried Schon Gruner Veltliner, Wachau

Tasted from the assemblage vat a week before the bottling, the barrel-fermented 2018 Grüner Veltliner Ried Schön is deep, clear and generous on the highly elegant and herbal/stony as well as slightly oaky and more and more flinty nose. Again, I can find hints of rendered speck or bacon. Dense and generous on the palate, this is a highly elegant, silky-textured and beautifully balanced Veltliner with great finesse and tension due to a vibrant mineral heartbeat and lovely lime and lemon flavors on the finish. The 2018 Schön is dancing a waltz on the palate, but it also reveals endless salinity, transparency and mineral freshness and is really sublime on the finish. This is a great Wachau wine that could even improve the Vinea Smaragd league. Tasted at the domain in September 2019.

95-96 points Stephan Reinhardt robertparker.com Apr 2020 Drink 2020-2040

A 'one-man' operation in the truest sense of the phrase, Martin was a truck driver for Domäne Wachau for 20 years before he started making wine of his own in the Spitzer Graben valley in Austria's famous Wachau region. Since 2006 he has been cultivating 3 hectares of vines - all organic since the 2010 vintage - planted on poor rocky soils at high altitudes. All fruit is hand harvested by Martin, and fermented spontaneously with ambient yeast.