There’s a new wine shop in Cambridge – King Street Cellar – and so your ever-intrepid researcher was obligated to check it out, especially since it has a focus on sustainability. So, one rainy weekend day recently, I trekked all the way down (and later, back up) the one hill in Cambridge. I had a very pleasant chat with Ben, the proprietor of King Street Cellar, and came away with two new wines to try. One was an Austrian Grüner Veltliner I had never even heard of. The other? You’ll have to wait a week or two.
In the glass
Clear, pale, lemon. Maybe a hint of straw. It’s pretty, but in a rather wine-typical sort of way.
The nose
No. That’s all my notes say. And I spent a fair amount of time trying to find something. Ah, well.
The palate
Dry, crisp. Medium-bodied. There’s more body than I was expecting, given the pale colour.
It’s not only incredibly crisp, but somehow reminds me of crisps. Yeah, that’s a bit weird. Deal with it. It does. That first bite of, say, a Kettle Chips crisp. That sort of crunchy snap.
Moving on from crisp weirdness, there’s green apples. Pepper. Green apple skins. Some lemon and lime. It has a decent finish, where some apricot and peach make an appearance.
It’s refreshing. More-ish.
It’s a wine that leads one to ponder the KMW (Klosterneuburg Must Weight) scale and Wachau classifications, although I accept that may not be a usual reaction. I can’t help but think that even though it’s not a Wachau wine, and hence these classifications aren’t used, it could almost be a Smaragd. (See below for explanation.) But again, I’m sort of expecting this wouldn’t be most people’s first associations. I’m special. Everyone says so.
Rating
Yummy-plus overall. Visual – It’s Wine. This was an easy rating. Very good on its own, but also works well with food. (Spaetzle, since you asked.) Very drinkable.
Sustainability
Unfortunately, their website doesn’t actually give any useful information, apart from ‘pure wines, pure nature’. Make of that what you will.
The technical info
12.5% ABV. Grüner Veltliner. £13.99 from King Street Cellar.
The other stuff
KMW? Since you asked: It’s a measure of the sugar in the must. The must, in turn being the fancy name for the unfermented grape juice that becomes wine. And the Wachau region of Austria classifies wine based on alcohol levels, and also KMW. (I believe. Some sources mention the KMW aspect, others don’t.)
Smaragd is the highest in terms of alcohol content (12.5% and above) and KMW. It’s also usually regarded as the posh stuff.