Wow, only take 6, huh?  Sorry everyone, there are plenty of things that I’ve hearted in the past few months, I just haven’t written about them I suppose.  Either way, here I am, falling madly in love with this wine.  It’s the 2006 Melusine Lyra Gruner Veltliner from winemaker Marion Ebner.  I mean, really, this is gruner?  Heck yeah!

Let’s being with the story of the winemaker Marion Ebner.  She grew up in Vienna and knew early on that she was interested in winemaking.  She enrolled in school just for that - which I should mention is not that common.  Most winemakers in Austria are born in in to the wine business…and most are guys.  When she was 16, she landed an internship with a great winery in Austria and worked under winemaker Fritz Wieninger (whose wines are also delicious, may I add). She went on to work in a wine shop (awesome) and the the marketing side of wine while gathering some resources.  She made a deal to cultivate some grapes in the Kamptal region and began producing the first small amount of the wonderful Melusine.  The Melusine is not like other Gruner Veltliners - it’s a lot fuller bodied and has so much complexity, you’ll probably be thinking about it still 45 minutes after you taste it.  The press quickly caught on to this small production wine, and with each vintage she gained more and more respect.

Now I’m sitting here drinking, er, tasting, the ‘06 which is just utterly fantastic.  As I mentioned before, it’s a fuller bodied gruner that sees some oak (French).  I could just smell this wine all day long.  If Melusine was made in to a perfume, that would be my scent. The nose is full of pineapple, citrus and white stone fruit (sweet apples anyone?).  The palate is lush and complex with fresh fruit and a creaminess that is balanced by a beautiful acidity.

Only 222 bottles were brought in to the US and if I had the funds, I’d be buying a lot of this.  However, lucky for you, we still have a little left…and if you get to West Town in the next day or so, we’ll still have some open to taste.