Gernot & Heike Heinrich, Burgenland


Graue Freyheit (Orange Wine), 2016

13%

750 ml

Varietals: 40% Grauer Burgunder (Pinot Gris), 40% Chardonnay & 20% Weißburgunder (Pinot Blanc)

Tasting Notes:

Graue Freyheit is colorful and aromatic. Far from boring grey, it is like morning fog lifting at dawn on a day that promises to be bright and clear. Brightly extracted red berries and very delicate black tea spice construct an exciting bridge between autumnal depth and spring-like insouciance and lust for life. Compact and taut with animating acidity, texture and persistent minerality, Graue Freyheit leaves an austere aftertaste with a cool impression. It creates an exciting symbiosis – powerful and sublimely steadfast, yet simultaneously calmly floating as only a zeppelin can. Attention: for best enjoyment, shake before pouring.

“The bouquet is pure and spicy in its fine red berry and chalky aromas. The palate is highly delicate, fresh and pure, with fine tannins, a chalky texture and refreshing minerality and good tannic grip on the finish. This is a Pinot Gris that does not come along as being all that fruity or powerful but instead is rather fine, pure, fresh and structured like a Pinot. In contrast to many Pinot Gris from Alsace, this is bone-dry and very stimulating even as a soloist.” - Stephan Reinhardt, Robert Parker

Falstaff Magazine: 93 points, Robert Parker: 93 points

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Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) thrives deeply rooted in crystalline schist and quartz schist on the Joiser Hackelsberg, a northwest slope that faces away from the Neusiedler See (Lake Neusiedl).The perfect complements, Chardonnay and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), grow in limestone and schist on east-facing slopes of the Leithaberg (Leitha Mountains) and come predominantly from the top sites Breitenbruner Edelgraben and Windener Alter Berg.

Handpicked from beginning to mid-September, fermented spontaneously and left on the skins for 15 days. Gently basket pressed, malolactic fermentation, finally matured for 14 months in used oak barrels on its own lees and bottled unfiltered without added sulphur.

Residual Sugar: 0.7 g/l

Acidity: 5.4 g/l