The Sohm & Kracher Gruner Veltliner Lion 2025 is a crisp, medium-bodied white from the Pulkautal in Austria's Weinviertel, built on green orchard fruit and pepper rather than richness. Fermented with wild yeast in stainless steel and left a year on its fine lees, it keeps a bright, savoury edge from start to finish.

Aromatically it leans cool and stony — pear skin, green apple and a twist of white pepper, with a faintly herbal, celery-leaf note underneath. Lemon pith and a chalky, mineral character sit behind the fruit.

The palate is linear and dry, with fine acidity running the length of it and just enough lees-derived texture to stop things feeling austere. A gentle grip through the middle leads to a long, saline close that leaves the mouth clean.

Serve it well chilled with oysters, prawn cocktail or a plate of schnitzel and lemon. It also handles trickier matches — asparagus, artichoke, coriander-heavy salads — better than most whites, and works simply as an aperitif before dinner.

Weinviertel Gruner Veltliner in this style rewards early drinking, so enjoy the Lion 2025 over the next three to four years while the aromatics are at their most vivid.