Sonntag GeschlossenGrüner Veltliner 2015 (750ml)

Please note that there are two unique bottlings of the 2015 Grüner Veltliner: One edition was bottled after 2,576 days (around seven years) and another, released in 2024, after 3,140 days (nearly nine years).

The first release is more fresh and direct. This is Grüner at its most perfumed, sweet apples and pears, nearly caramelized while also mineral. From a generous and warmer year, the wine strikes a balance between maturity, development, freshness and finesse—there is an interplay of both oxidation and reduction that gives depth, texture and complexity.

The second release from late in 2024 is much more complex; if shows less fruit and is more herbal and airy, more mineral and floral. Though the wine is very fresh with lovely rushing acids, one does taste and feel the warm plushness of the vintage. Superb.

There is just no way to reproduce the effects of such extended barrel aging. And there are few precedents for this kind of wine, for this extended an elevage. The only one that comes to mind immediately, are the revered and mystical “Vinothek” bottlings of Nikolaihof – wines that, we might add, command prices of $150-$200+ a bottle.

Sonntag’s bottlings are considerably less.