Wine of the Week 3/19/19

Ecker Eckhof Grüner Veltliner 2016
Regularly $17.99/On sale for $13.96

The name Wagram comes from “Wogenrain” meaning “shore”. This Austrian wine-making region has incredibly deep, and mineral-rich soils, deposited by a receding primordial ocean millions of years ago.

Bernhard Ecker farms 20 hectares in the serene Wagram, which separates Vienna from the Kamptal and Kremstal wine regions. Bernhard took over winemaking in 1998, but the Ecker family has 400 years of history farming and raising animals in the area.

Grüner Veltliner is king in the Wagram (though Ecker also grows other traditional varietals) and this entry-level wine is a charming and satisfying white, perfect for warmer weather and the lightness of heart that Spring can bring. 

Need further enticement?  Once upon a time, ace-importer Terry Thiese was tasting a host of Austrian wine samples for inclusion in his portfolio.  All of them were very “modern:” clean and varietally correct.  

“…  all of them were good.  ‘Good.’  But one of them was much, much better than good.  One guy’s wines were like the difference between smiling only with your mouth and smiling with your entire face.  This was Mr. Bernhard Ecker’s wine: “Modern” wine at its best.  It is neither clinical nor denuded of its life force.  I love the exceptional clarity, the high-def obsessive nuance, the vital freshness, the charm and deliciousness, something of great humor that catapults the wine above mere correctness.  I don’t want all wines to be as modern as these are, but I want all modern wines to have the soul I taste here.”

Terry Thiese from his book “What Makes A Wine Worth Drinking: In Praise of the Sublime”

Wisely bottled in the liter-size, as you will definitely want just that little bit more.