Yellow Muscat – Ried Steinriegl from the Wohlmuth Winery
The 2023 Wohlmuth Yellow Muscat Ried Steinriegl is an elegant, fragrant, dry white wine from the Steinriegl vineyard site in Styria, Austria. Its vines grow in incredibly steep vineyard slopes planted on slate soils. Influenced by the Illyrian climate—which brings warm winds from the Mediterranean and cool winds from the Alps to the north into Kitzeck in Southern Styria—and through extensive manual labor on the steep slopes, which requires an admirable dedication to the land, white wines with a distinctive, complex fruit character are created.
The Yellow Muscat Steinriegl from the Wohlmuth winery is a wonderfully floral, enormously juicy representative of its grape variety. On the nose and palate, it reveals an aromatic spectrum of floral notes of elderflower and orange blossom, hints of yellow rose, yellow tropical fruit, pineapple, and lime, with delicate notes of mango, a touch of lychee honey, and nutmeg; a fine extract sweetness always resonates with the subtle slate spice, providing a wonderfully cool minerality, finesse, and precision. A great Muscat with aging potential and a sophisticated acidity profile. This demonstrates the brilliant interplay of grape variety, soil, terroir, and winemaking craftsmanship, which has a 200-year tradition at the Wohlmuths.
Yellow Muscat – from the Steinriegl site
The location, or as the Austrians say, the "Ried" Steinriegl, is one of the best sites in Southern Styria and has been mentioned in documents for centuries. It is an Erste STK Lage Südsteiermark DAC.
The vineyard is located at an altitude of 460–510 meters and is quite steep with a 65% gradient; the soils consist of Paleozoic slate. The upper part of the Ried Steinriegl faces south, the lower part south-southwest. Since the 2018 vintage, this special site, which yields multi-layered wines of pronounced minerality, has been classified as an Erste STK Lage Südsteiermark DAC.
Due to the special orientation, high altitude, and openness to the nearby Alps, the vineyard experiences particularly rapid and strong cooling in the evening, which leads to the intense development of aromas. The extremely barren, red, phyllitic slate soil gives the wines their own distinct spicy character.
The grapes for this Wohlmuth Muscat are harvested very late by selective hand-picking. A short period of skin contact and a very slow, gentle pressing, as well as temperature-controlled fermentation at approx. 20°C in stainless steel tanks, preserve fragrance and fruitiness. Subsequent bâtonnage and 11 months of aging on the fine lees in large, used wooden barrels ensure a full-bodied mouthfeel and fine creaminess.
The appealingly modern label is designed each year by a different young artist. The label for the 2023 vintage features an exciting work by the German artist Torben Giehler.
a single-vineyard wine and its values
- Origin: Austria
- Region: Southern Styria
- Site: Ried Steinriegl
- Grape Variety: Yellow Muscat
- Vegan
- 12.0% vol. alcohol
- 6.6 g/l acidity
- 1.1 g/l residual sugar