Gebeshuber Zierfandler - best at 70 years old?

When Johannes Gebeshuber purchased a failing cooperative winery in the heart of Austria’s Thermenregion, his spoils didn’t just include 25 hectares of old vines and a beautiful vaulted cellar. He also became the guardian of an extraordinary wine library, with bottles produced by the Gumpoldskirchenergenossenschaft going back to 1948.

Johannes is a generous sort of chap, as on the occasion of his 50^th birthday he invited a small group of journalists to the winery (now renamed Gebeshuber) to sample the estate’s Zierfandler from the modern era right back to that distant postwar vintage.

At this point, hail Mary, a confession. I gladly accepted the invitation, despite being a Zierfandler-hater. One of Thermenregion’s two indigenous white varieties (the other is Rotgipfler), Zierfandler tends to high or very high alcohol (no-one bats an eyelid at 14.5% ABV), and typically offers a profusion of buttery, overbearing tropical fruit flavours. Coupled with the tendency of some producers to smothe…