Cool Knoll!

2/14/2009 -

It turns out that the rarest wines in the world are not the most expensive: you can find Petrus or Romanee Conti all over the place, but other wines that age fabulously, like old Chinon, or Bandol, or Gruner Veltliner are virtually impossible to find. The low release prices for these wines is the primary factor in their early consumption, as is local habit; in Austria there’s a lot of pressure on wineries to release their new wine in January – Emmerich Knoll Jr told me that this was so the skiers can have a nouvelle kind of treat. The Knolls, on the other hand, make wine for the cellar, and say that a minimum of 10 years is required for the wines to begin to blossom (they usually release their new wines a full year after the vintage, and even then they grumble about it a bit).

Thanks to a dear friend who lives in Krems, we have been able to taste Knoll and other great Austrian white wines back to the 1960s – long and somewhat bacchanalian June evenings that end with several dozen empty bottles, and revelatory. With age these wines take on tremendous complexity and nuance; it turns out that Gruner and Riesling – and Muskateller and Neuberger – from the Wachau can age as well, or better, than any of the great Chardonnays of the world.

This offer is the third tranche from a fine cellar in the Wachau; we’ve had great lots from Hirtzberger, Prager, and the Pichlers, and so it was impossible to resist such an incredible selection of perfectly stored Knoll wines. The cellar has some damp spots, and the soft uncoated paper of the old labels has suffered some. We guarantee the contents, however.

At this point we could write on and on about how Knoll (along with the above-mentioned wineries) is one of the great artisanal producers of Austria, and thus of the world… but instead we urge you to find out for yourselves.