A Young Legend

Those readers who heeded my advice to drink off-piste and poke around the 'Rest of Europe' part of the Waitrose wine section will recognise the name of Gobelsburg. The wine from this Schloss in the Kamptal, just south of Langenlois, is home to Michael and Eva Moosbrugger's Weingut Schloss Gobelsburg, continuing a 2000-year tradition of winemaking in this area. Very few readers, however, intrepid will know about Donaulegendchen, the Schloss's newest wine.

Last night, this young wine was named and baptised in the castle's cellars. With local dignitaries, wine critic and historian Philipp Blom and the wine's godfather, Dominique Meyer, Intendant of the Wiener Staatsoper, on hand, the Abbot of Zwettl Monastery blessed the 'work of human hands' that was now fermenting in the barrel next to him.

Recalling Meyer's predecessor at the Hofoper, over a century ago, as well as the landscape in which the grapes have been grown, the Moosbrugger's decided to call the wine Donaulegendchen, recalling Mahler's famous Wunderhornlieder 'Rheinlegendchen'. As we supped on the first cloudy but hugely redolent evidence of this new Grüner Veltliner, the leader of the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Peter Matzka and his colleagues played Matzka's own string trio arrangement of Mahler's lilting Lied.

Such is the genuinely Gemütlich atmosphere in which the vintners of the Kamptal operate. Friendship, engagement with their ostensible competitors and profligate hospitality are its hallmarks, alongside, of course, the superb wine the area produces. And there is also a great respect for tradition, acknowledging that wine has been produced here for much longer than you or I have been drinking it, as Michael Moosbrugger explain about his his range of 'Tradition' wines:

I was asked by a journalist how the wines would have tasted in their youth. This question stayed with me for a long time, and it led me to explore and learn more about the methods and practices of that time. I had many long talks with the senior abbot, Fr. Bertrand, who had been responsible for the wines of Schloss Gobelsburg in the “old days”. Then came the strong wish to resurrect the character of the wines that had dominated these cellars for centuries.

Constantly questioning methods, addressing the challenges of this year's capricious weather, Moosbrugger nonetheless remains calm, while curious about his profession. And no doubt what is now sitting in a barrel in the cellars at Schoss Gobelsburg, decorated with Mahler's distinctive profile, will prove as refined as any of this castle's wines, appearing increasingly n tables around the world. Click here for more information.

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