Our older vintages
Chardonnay
2016
Hints of flowers, mocha, caramel as well as yeast, then apples and lime; dry with a lively freshness from the beginning, well balanced, medium body but tight with substance and structure, very youthful, straight forward, some apple and lime, then a dense almost salty mineral mouth feel following through to the finish, gentle herbal spiciness on the pallet combined with fine notes of anise, good length. Very promising.
In the ‘80s, the Bründlmayer Chardonnay won a competition tasting of the "Best Chardonnays in the World" (Veronelli) at the Vinitaly wine fair – even though the wine actually had been introduced by a German journalist as a "pirate". This event can be regarded as a prelude to the worldwide interest in Willi Bründlmayer wines. The international style has since found its way to an individual expression with tight structure and charming "Austrian" fruit, with the body, depending on the vintage, sometimes fuller or sometimes leaner.
This wine stems predominantly from the vineyards Spiegel, Steinmassel und Loiser Berg. Some of the vines are trained in a Lyre trellis system (Steinmassel), the others in the Guyot method planted in a density of 5000-6000 plants per hectare.
At the beginning of September a selection of the grapes is picked for the sparkling wine production. The remaining grapes increase in intensity and the resulting wine is very concentrated.
Maturation
Fermentation takes place in the barrels where the wine is stirred on the lees weekly over 5-6 months. Then it is racked into 2500 liters wooden barrels. This wine always undergoes malolactic fermentation.
Food pairing recommendation
Tends to match with classic Vienna style dishes, white meats and well seasoned hearty fish dishes, many starters like warm goose liver and apple as well as with most Asian dishes such as stir fried Woks, fusion - or Thai-kitchen if not too hot.