2017 Tement Ried Grassnitzberg Sauvignon Blanc

Bottled in February 2019, the 2017 Ried Grassnitzberg Sauvignon Blanc is from Tement’s coolest vineyard, where Manfred Tement started the Sauvignon Blanc revolution in South Styria (when the grape was called Muscat-Sylvaner and had a very bad image). The nose is impressive in its deep, pure, fresh and complex, tightly knit generosity that reveals a coolish lime and lemon bouquet interwoven with flinty notes of crushed limestone rocks and even charming floral notes, white cassis, melissa, stinging nettle and green tea aromas. Full-bodied, round and highly finessed, with a coolish, seamless silky texture and a firm, persistently salty and crunchy-crystalline structure, this is a great and expressive Grassnitzberg that has never been better, more complex and spellbinding. The 2017 already shows its class, but you would waste the very best if you drank it too soon. This is a great, endlessly salty and tensioned Sauvignon Blanc with challenging but ripe and stimulating phenols (12-18 hours of maceration). Stay patient but buy first. Tasted in May 2019.