Gruner Veltliner is Austria's claim to fame - a local white variety that is like a hypothetical cross between Riesling and unoaked Chardonnay. It ages brilliantly and shows delicious cool fruit characteristics at all stages of its life. This wine undergoes spontaneous fermentation, and does not see any oak. It is a crisp, fresh, aperitif-style grüner that is salty and easy to drink. Plenty of lime, grapefruit and radish, accentuated by pure acidity.. Great stuff.

Aldo Sohm (one of the worlds greatest sommeliers) and Gerhard Kracher (head winemaker and owner of his highly regarded eponymous wine estate), both Austrians, first met in New York, in 2004. Their friendship was cemented over a shared devotion to great food and wine. It wasn’t long before they realised this love extended to the dry grüner veltliners of their homeland — and a desire to make them. Over a long lunch later that year, the Sohm & Kracher project was born. The wine are made in accordance with two basic principles: the wines should be low to moderate in alcohol and should never be unctuous in character. Since their first vintage in 2009 they have kept a sharp focus on grüner veltliner, even as they have widened the scope of exploration across sites and styles — from the brisk, peppery “Lion” to the Chablis-like “St. Georg.” Gerhard makes the Sohm & Kracher wines at the Kracher family winery in Illmitz, Burgenland. All fermentations are spontaneous and temperature-controlled. Their aim is to fully express the purity and complexity of their favourite variety.