New Tasting Notes: Nikolaihof
Austrian winery Nikolaihof lays claim to being the first biodynamically managed vineyard in Europe. Now, I’m not one to immediately prostrate myself before people just because they practise the arcane philosophies of Rudolf Steiner and his accolytes, but such vineyards do often produce superior wines, I find. But I put this down to the fact that if they practise biodynamics, they are obviously interested in quality, because it is a costly way to grow grapes. And if they are quality-orientated, they probably try harder. People who try harder generally make very good wine.
I discovered Nikolaihof’s biodynamic history after tasting the wines, so I wasn’t influenced by this knowledge. The wines I tasted recently, thanks to some leftovers from a Summer of Riesling tasting provided by importer Tim Stock of Vinous Solutions, were very impressive. He said some of the bottles had been open for a day or two, and that although they are delicate white wines, they usually drink well a day or two after being opened, and often actually improve with extended breathing. All I can say is, none of the wines I tasted showed any ill-effects from exposure to the air.
These wines, from the Wachau region, are among the most recent tasting notes uploaded to the huonhooke.com app. The three gruner veltliners (tastings), peaking with the 2012 Im Weingebirge Smaragd ($116 - tasting) were excellent. But the five rieslings were a revelation: all were superb, and I was amazed to find some of the Vom Stein bottlings spent up to eight years in big, old oak.
The climax was a 1997 Vinotek Riesling ($332 - tasting) which had spent 17 years (no, it’s not a typographical mistake!) in barrel before bottling last year. I rated it 98 points. In other words, I was gob-smacked. These are some of the true marvels of the wine world.