Weingut Bründlmayer, “Zöbinger Heiligenstein” Riesling

In a world as polarizing as wine, there seems to be unanimity when it comes to the consistent brilliance and soaring renown of Bründlmayer. Jancis Robinson refers to Bründlmayer as a “beacon for Austrian Wine” and Gault & Millau recently gave longtime winemaker Willi Bründlmayer a Lifetime Achievement Award for the global recognition he’s brought his region’s wines. Though the list of accolades for Bründlmayer goes on and on, I’ll end it here by saying it is one of my favorite wine producers in the world, and today’s mineral-loaded, bone-dry Riesling hails from their very best vineyard.It’s also the site where one of my all-time greatest wine experiences occurred: Years ago, with my good friend Vincent—the son of Willi—we opened a 1985 “Zöbinger Heiligenstein” while sitting in a rusty two-seater pickup truck wedged between two rows of that very vineyard. The breathtaking complexity and mineral precision packed into that wine still resonates clearly to this day. Now every time I fin