Kracher, Nouvelle Vague Grande Cuvee Trockenbeerenauslese Nr12

About Kracher

In the late 1980s and up to his early death in 2007, Alois Kracher handcrafted some of the greatest noble sweet wines of the world. His annual collections of numbered TBAs (Trockenbeerenauslesen), produced in Illmitz at the lake Neusiedl, became legends and were often presented along with the finest sweet wines from Sauternes (namely Ch teau d Yquem), Tokaji (Szepsi) and Mosel-Saar-Ruwer (Egon M ller, Joh. Jos. Pr m). There are no secrets to the production of Kracher s unparalleled range of remarkable sweet wines, headlined of course each year by up to a dozen or more trockenbeerenauslese cuv es. For three generations the Kracher family has led the way in the Seewinkel, that corner of Austria to the east of Lake Neusiedl, just an hour s drive from Vienna. In the vineyard, yields are kept incredibly low with each vine limited to just 3 bunches of grapes. In the cellar, each individual parcel is vinified separately, often in lots as small as a hundred litres or so. Malolactic fermentation is avoided to retain the grapes high natural acidity and sulphur use is kept to a minimum. Two styles of TBA are produced: Zwischen den Seen (between the lakes), vinified in stainless steel or large oak casks; and Nouvelle Vague (new wave), vinified in French oak barriques. The Pannonian (continental) climate helps to create the necessary conditions for the formation of the noble rot, botrytis cinerea, which is the key to the immense concentration, sweetness, and complexity of the greatest sweet wines.