Stagård, Urban, Grüner Veltliner

This is Grüner Veltliner that is worth getting out of bed for. It will also convince any of your friends or family that this wonderful grape variety will bring an extra, hugely enjoyable dimension to their wine repertoire. It will also become one of your own favourites, we promise!

Made from grapes grown in some of the steepest vineyards in the western Kamptal region of Austria, this is a Grüner that represents both sides of the house style: serious in quality and depth, showcasing the complexity and minerality that is so much part of the history of the Kremstal region; while expressing a bright, juicy and hugely enjoyable side of the wine, which is another intrinsically important part of the Grüner story.

Notes of lime, grapefruit, salt, pepper, with savoury spices refreshing minerality. Bright, but with depth and a palate with flavours of green pepper, citrus fruit and a lively, mouth-watering acidity.

"Urban" is that blend of sophistication and light-handed cool that the winery have managed to bottle; it's also, handily, the name of one half of the winery's owners - Urban Stagård. The winery is based in the town of Krems and has a fascinating story in its own right.

A harvesting building-come-yard-come-farm unit was built on the site in the town of Krems to process uncrushed grapes and apricots that were grown in nearby areas and regions. This was all done by the owners, the Benedictine monastery in the Bavarian village of Tegernsee, situated on the lake of the same name - Tegernsee. The forward-planning and expansion-savvy Monks wanted to secure the right location for fruit conversion (including wine making) and settled in Kremstal region of Austria. It's quite baffling to consider this to be an easy decision as the two places are about 400 km apart from each other and much of that journey is Alpine: it's most likely that the Abbey sought other political controls and thought that the development was good for parochial outreach. Perhaps parishes were expected to have a larger reach those days...

Eventually the building was bought privately and since 1786 the vineyards have continuously been in the hands of Urban's maternal family. 10 generations later, he and partner Dominique took control of the running of the whole operation and in 2008 began the conversion to 100% Organic farming and in 2020 were certified as Bio-Dynamic. The wines are made with minimum winery intervention and rest for far longer than normal on their lees, gently extracting more quality from the grapes, giving greater structure and texture to the resultant wines.

Their goal of making bold, exciting and authentic wines, simultaneously expressing evolution and tradition, has been fully realised and we are very excited to have them for you. And while some wines will appear to be more fun and others more serious, they are always authentic and always engaging.

The name? Easy: Urban's father Kenneth Stagård moved to Austria in the 1980s from Sweden.

Grüner Veltliner is a brilliant grape variety that seems to be the perfect food matching wine. Textural and semi-aromatic, it often has flavours that are on the culinary spectrum, such as tarragon, sage, oregano and, most typically, white pepper. There are very classic Grüners that almost appear as though they're made with a bouquet garni... This is a version on the brighter, fresher and more vibrant style. It's delicious!