The Sohm & Kracher Grüner Veltliner Alte Reben 2024 is a textural, dry white from old vines in the Pulkau Valley in Austria's Weinviertel, with more weight and grip than the usual peppery Veltliner. Ripe yellow orchard fruit sits alongside a savoury, saline edge that keeps the wine serious rather than simply refreshing.

Aromas run to yellow apple, quince and ripe pear, with citrus peel, hay flowers and a lick of white pepper underneath. The palate carries that fruit into something broader — stone fruit, a touch of tropical papaya, and a stony, faintly herbal savouriness that builds with air.

Extract and gentle phenolic grip give the wine shape, closer to a good Chardonnay in feel than to a light aperitif style. Ripe acidity runs the length of it, the texture is fine rather than heavy, and the finish is long and salty. Warmth through the 2024 growing season, followed by heavy September rain across Lower Austria that pushed picking later, shows here as generous ripeness held in check by a firm line of acid.

Serve with roast chicken, schnitzel and lemon, pork belly, fried whitebait or a leek and gruyère tart. It also handles asparagus, artichoke and green herbs better than most whites.

Drinking well now and worth cellaring, with the structure to develop through to around 2032.