TN: Two Nikolaihof Gruners...(short/boring)

WINE TALK
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Tried these two last night:

  1. Nikolaihof Zwickl GrunerVeltliner Wachau (12%; EB; Demeter Certified; www.Nikolaihof.At; L0817; “Shake btl gently before drinking”; SkurnikWines) Mautern 2019: Med.light gold color w/ lots of tiny bubbles & quite cloudy; rather earthy/chalky very slight GV/floral slight funky/natty nose; soft off-dry (0.5%-0.8% r.s.) rather earthy very slight GV/floral bit natty/funky slight citric/grapefruity rather dull flavor; med.short rather earthy very slight GV/floral bit natty/funky bit citric/Sprite soda pop finish; almost a total absence of GV fruit; pretty vapid & characterless & dull as dishwater; a dreadful example of GV; way overpriced at $29.00 (KK)
  1. Nikolaihof Hefeabzug GrunerVeltliner Wachau (11.5%; Demeter Certified; LN 1078719) Mautern 2018: Med.light color w/ small bubbles that dissipate rapidly; verey light earthy very light GV/white pepper/floral vaguely fruity quite lightweight nose; soft slight earthy very light GV/floral vaguely fruity flavor; med.short slight earthy rather soft vaguely fruity/GV/floral finish; speaks of GV but in a whisper; a pretty dull expression of GV; overpriced at $27.50 (KK)

A wee BloodyPulpit:

  1. These two just arrived at Kokoman, so thought I should give them a try. Shouldn’t have bothered, they were both dullard expressions of GV. I’ve had much better from them in the past. These two don’t hold a candle to the basic IngridGroiss or Weininger GV’s. Very disappointing.
    The admonition on the Zwickl to shake gently is probably because the wine is unfiltered and has some suspended sediment that they thinks adds to the flavor. Doubt that it helped at all.
    Tom
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Tom, if you can, try the '19 Nigl Freiheit, which is $20 here in high-overhead Oregon. I thought it was really nice for a basic GV.

1 Like
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Thanks, Marshall. We occasionally see Nigel down here.
Tom

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I find entry level wines from top producers in the Wachau are rarely well valued. That’s my impression, anyway. Add in that Nikolaihof funk, which I am never a fan of, and I’m not surprised at all at your impressions, Tom. There’s plenty of really good Grüner in that price range. Heck, even Gobelsburg’s entry level has been killing it in the past couple of vintages, at half the price.

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Well, value is always tricky and Wachau certainly commands a premium that is not always reflected in quality. That said, I was able to buy a bunch of 2019 Prager Hinter der Burg GV Federspiel earlier this year at WineAccess for $20/btl. after discounts and that is a very fair price for that bottling (and even at its list price of $30 is a decent value, though there rte certainly better to be had outside the Wachau).

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Well, yeah. I’m not such a big fan of Gruner to begin with, but I love the upper echelon rieslings from the Wachau, including those from Nikolaihof. Their Steinerhund is usually a memorable bottle.

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Tom, Sorry to hear about your experiences with the Nikolaihof wines, although having read many of your notes on other boards over the years I am not surprised that they were not your thing.

Although Nikolaihof is one of my favorite Wachau producers along with Hirtzberger and FX Pichler, I’ve only tried the Zwickl bottle once. The 2015 was showing quite nicely a year ago - aside from the sediment and some turmeric flavors, my note does not indicate anything way out of the ordinary.

I would be truly impressed if you had followed Nikolaihof from the beginning…