Hugl Weine, Gruner Veltliner 2009 $10.99 (liter bottle)***

People have started to come into the store and ask for an Austrian varietal, Gruner Veltiners. At least I think that's what they are doing most of the pronunciation is a little iffy. This German varietal tends to be pronounced along the lines of, "groo...uhh...grooirvleti...huh...?" which can be difficult to differentiate from people trying to say Gewerstraminer "guh ..I mean...gehvreets..um..?" Not that I'm critizising of course, german words tend to be quite long and always seem to be missing a few vowels somewhere and frankly not only can I not figure out how to type the "U" with an umlaut in "Gruner" I'm not quite sure what an umlaut is supposed to indicate (yes I know, it's the Internet and I could just look it up...so I did). Anyway, I think we are all going to have a lot of practice pronouncing "Gruner Veltliner" (grooner velt-leener) because this a fantastically refreshing white wine at a lubriciously low prices. Case in point--Hugl Weine Gruner Veltliner 2009. The first thing you notice is that the wine bottle looks funny--kinda big and it is. Unlike most other places in the world wine tends to show up in liter bottles I don't know why. but $10.99 would be great price for 750ml, for 1 liter it's insane. This wine is a full bodied and crisp white wine with a mineral base and lots of delicate citrus and tropical fruit notes.***