Grüner Veltliner is Austria's flagship, covering more than a quarter of the country's vineyard, from the Danube terraces of the Wachau to the loess of the Weinviertel. Its parentage stayed half-solved for decades: Traminer on one side, unknown on the other — until researchers in 2000 traced the missing parent to a single gnarled old vine in the Burgenland village of St. Georgen.
The signature is white pepper — the compound rotundone — over green apple, citrus and a savoury lentil note. The range runs from chuggable Heurigen jug wine to the deep Smaragd bottlings of the Wachau, wines that have famously bested white Burgundies in blind tastings and age for decades on their spine of acidity.