If you guys know me, you know I love a good outdoor space. Give me lush landscape, flowing flower gardens, and bountiful vegetable gardens. Some of my favorite times are when I drink wine al fresco on my deck. For one of the latest sipping sessions, I grabbed a bottle of Christina Grüner Veltliner 2020.

Christina Netzl, the bottle’s namesake, began her winemaking journey at 5 years old (start ‘em young), working on her family’s farm and vineyard with her parents and grandparents. As she got older, she studied oenology and wine management in London, getting to know wine styles from all over the world. She returned to her family’s 28-hectare winery in Carnuntum, Austria, and began the process of converting the operation to organic agriculture. Through soil treatments, elimination of herbicides, elimination of pesticides, and more, the vineyard and winery began running 100% organic.

For this Grüner Veltliner, grapes are harvested and pressed as whole bunches. The juice is fermented spontaneously in stainless steel in a long, slow ferment thanks to the cold winter temperatures. The wine is racked once to remove the lees and immediately bottled, unfined and unfiltered, with a small addition of sulfur.

What a beaut—I love natural wine because it’s always fun (and sometimes funky). It had a pale gold hue with cloudiness and unfiltered sediment. Sean, on the other hand, said it looked like cloudy urine (a valid observation). The nose was fragrant with florals and yellow apple. In the glass, it was on the drier side, light to medium bodied, with medium+ acidity. It kept hitting me with tons of lemon and some stone fruit. It was TOO easy to drink, but still had some interesting layers to it. I got it locally at Lucio Wine Shop.