Malat’s 2007 Riesling Steinbuhel offers rich peach with smoky, tartly fruit skin, and bitter peach kernel inflections. With single-minded intensity, it wears its concentration in a relatively austere way, finishing with hints of wet stone and cyanic bitterness. Yet there is something to admire about the compact concentration and pith of this wine which should be worth revisiting over the course of the next 3-4 years. Only the two lightest of Gerald and Michael Malat’s Gruner Veltliner were harvested in October, the rest in November. “We simply had to wait for things to dry out,” explains Gerald Malat, “and to me there is a clear difference between any of the wines harvested before and those harvested after the big rains. Those harvested long enough afterward are more multi-layered.” Among the most notable characteristics of this estate is the sheer number of grape varieties with which it often succeeds. But while Gruner Veltliner and Riesling here were notable in quality this year, intensely aromatic Muskateller and Sauvignon bottlings were too brusque and coarse to merit high recommendation. A sampling of Pinot Gris from barrel was promising but will need to be re-tasted for a proper appraisal. It is good to know that the wines of this estate may soon gain wider distribution in the U.S., but due to the recent change in importers, retail prices were not yet available for any of their 2007s.Importer: Winemonger, Los Angeles, CA; www.winemonger.com
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