Austria
After several not overly successful ventures into UK supermarket wine I have let my investigation into what is available on the mass market slip. The other day though in Sainsburys I came past an Austrian wine that looked really interesting. And so I grabbed a bottle and was rewarded with one of the best wines I have ever bought from a supermarket. If you are bored by cheap Australian or Italian wines and look for a good refreshing white then look no further and go for Austria this summer.
Markus Huber's Veltliner, Sainsbury
Both my co-Rambler and I recently came to the conclusion that we had somewhat neglected Austria - a country that makes some truly outstanding wines. So Julian went off to have an afternoon of Austrian wine, during which he was particularly impressed with a Riesling made by the Prager winery. At about the same time I found myself talking Prager with Damian from Fields Morris & Verdin on Twitter. As I had never tried a Prager Riesling, Damian kindly provided me with a tasting sample, the 2006 Steinriegl Smaragd - a Riesling that is more than just a reminder of how good Austrian wine can be.
Having had a fun afternoon sipping austrian wines recently, I dediced it was time for another foray into the territory of Grüner Veltliner, also known as "Groona" in the Vayniac universe. The austrian national grape, Grüner Veltliner makes for powerfully spicy, herbal and mineral whites, if, and only if, handled expertly by ethnic austrians with Veltliner strains in their genome. Johannes Hirsch from the Kamptal clearly qualifies here. His 06 Heiligenstein has been reviewed one year ago here, with a respectable, but didn't-blow-our-socks-off kind of result. So what has an additional year of bottle age done for this wine?
It is time again to write up some wine relate news: the juicy, the interesting, the random and all other sorts of miscellaneous wine information the Wine Rambler happened to stumble upon over the past few weeks.
I don't know how this always happens, but again we have a few miscellanies on the wide and, potentially, attractive topic of 'women and wine'. 'Potentially attractive' would perhaps be a good way of referring to something I came across the other day on the website of the Austrian Kronen Zeitung. Every so often you will find men and women stripping in front of a camera, to produce a calendar that supports some good cause (fight against cancer, making money etc.). Recently, the Austrians got a dozen women (almost) naked to support the Austrian wine industry. Personally, I think Austrian wine is good enough not to need that kind of support, but the organiser feels that the calendar will support the marketing of Austria's good wine in a 'modern and personable way'. 'Who', she say, 'would be better suited for this than our own vintner offspring?' So they put twelve (almost, I hasten to add again) naked daughters of vintners in wine related surroundings (vineyards, cellars etc.), decorate them with stockings and all the like and think that this will help to improve the image of Austrian wine. [read the full post...]
About once per season the London branch of the Wine Rambler assembles a coalition of willing wine drinkers in London. The mission: to drink some god-damn wine. Mostly German wine. This time, however, we had new rules - every wine was tasted blind, its identity only to be revealed after the judges had come to a verdict. Also new was the excessiveness: between the eight of us (two arrived late, one left early) we opened nine bottles, although not every wine was finished. So let's jump right in, shall we?
People have very different ideas about wine labels, including people in wineries, of course, and that must be a good thing as it creates a certain variety. The artist-designed label of this year's GrüVe is certainly very distinctive, although I cannot say that I like the way in which it overpowers the whole bottle to the point that you see nothing else. But that just is the tradition of the Sonnhof estate's GrüVe label, an entry level Austrian Grüner Veltliner from one of Austria's premier wineries.
While the week comes to an end, it is getting time for some wine news from the Internet: the miscellaneous, the bizarre, the enlightening. Let's start with Spar. 'Spar' means 'save money' in German (and, as I understand, also in several other languages such as Dutch, Danish or Norwegian) and I always took it for a smallish continental food retailer, until I found out that it actually is one of the world's largest. Maybe it is this international aspect of the business that has convinced Spar to go local with regards to wine. In the UK, Spar is now selling wines with the labels translated, well, not into English, but into regional dialects. [read the full post...]
Here in the UK, most people would probably associate the Shiraz grape with Australia. Germans and Austrians, however, like to call it Syrah, and if they were into wine they might know that Austria produces a few nice ones too - and this Syrah is one of them. [read the full post...]
Welcome to a new category of Wine Rambling: Wine News. Wine News is not really news in the sense that it brings you all the most important events and news from the day, it is much rather a quite random summary of bits of news, blog posts and other randomia I come across. The useful, the interesting, the weird. So let's jump right into it... [read the full post...]
Grüner Veltliner is Austria's signature white grape varietal. It produces lovely, fresh and crisp wines and I am just having one of these from the Kamptal. Located within easy reach of Vienna, the Kamptal has a few well known vineyards and Heiligenstein (holly stone) is one of the prestigious ones. Grüner Veltliner has a reputation of being a good food companion and so far I have not gone wrong with this grape.
The nose of the Heiligenstein Veltliner is a nicely balanced mix of cool mineral, apple and citrus fruit, enhanced by herbs, vegetable and a bit of freshly ground pepper. Not in an in-your-face style, more of a quiet confidence that does not need a fruit explosion to convince. [read the full post...]
Intense yellow gold colour. A nose of honey and peach, with a hint of a medicinal smell (that almost completely faded away after a few hours). A thick and creamy sensation in the mouth - according to the producer this baby has 190 gram of residual sugar per liter - and a flavour mix of peach and honey with a decent kick of spice. Initially, the Eisgöttind (ice goddess) reminded me of a Sauternes, but the fresh spice gave a welcome contrast to the sweetness. Still a very heavy wine, the kind of wine that ends the drinking for that day, full stop. Yummy as a desert wine, perhaps a bit too heavy for me to drink on its own - I guess I will just always be a sucker for the light Mosel late vintages.
In some ways, the biggest surprise about this wine was that the grape I know as Gelber Muskateller (yellow muscat) seems to be know to English speakers as Muscat blanc à petits grains. Does that mean the wine is unexciting or boring? Not at all.
Pale colour with a greenish touch, still lots of small bubbles, almost algae-like at first. A fresh nose dominated by floral, herbal notes with a decent bit of elderflower and some fruitiness. In the mouth the wine is much drier than you would expect it after that intense floralness, but it still packs a nice bit of fresh acidity, combined with elderflower and some bitter apple. [read the full post...]
E.W. Polz, Südsteiermark, had two great Sauvignon Blancs on display:
The 2008 "Steinbach" (27,50) had enormous zest and spritziness, a burst of green flavors like a flowering meadow in may, mint, cassis.
The 2007 "Hochgrassnitzberg" (27,50) had been left to age with the yeast for a year longer, and was completely different: Yellow flavours, creamy, yellow peppers maybe, something that tasted like nutty oak but wasn't, as I was assured no barriques had been used. Very intense as well.
Stefan Potzinger, also Südsteiermark, convinced me less. His 2008 Morillon (=Chardonnay) "Ratsch" (13,90) was nice, but boring, and his 2007 Sauvignon blanc "Joseph" (26,90) was wildly overoaked - no comparison with the spicy and lively one by Polz. [read the full post...]
A fairly strong white wine that does not taste of alcohol at all. A fresh nose with mineral, lemon and green apple; fresh and crisp in the mouth too, nicely balanced with a sophisticated richness of almost creamy, buttery consistency.
A very drinkable blend of crisp, young, fresh, aged, smooth, mineral, lemon, acidity and creaminess. Went very nicely with the monkfish and scallops in butter-lime-chili sauce. Go Kamptal.
Was marketed by K&U as a smooth, digestible (!), dry and low acid Grüner that should go well with fish and vegetable dishes, a nice everyday wine. And what can I say, it was exactly that. Everyone enjoyed this crisp yet smooth, very clear Grüner. A wine that excels at being simple.
Found in a Glasgow shop, I was curious to see how this wine from the Traisental would turn out. Turns out, it is a sugar bomb. Colour: golden, but not as intense as one would expect. Strong fruit sugar in the nose with lots of caramel and pear. In the mouth, even more caramel and pear, intense, alcohol marinated pear with a bit of spice.
Reminds me of a previous Huxelrebe-experience but not as nice. This one is incredibly sugary and even the spice in there cannot balance it fully. Makes a good desert wine, for instance with fat cheese or pear (no surprise here) but too much for me without that balance - it lasted more than two nights as one small glass is really enough.
I prefer the more drinkable sugary Molitors, but with a fat desert or ice cream with bananas maybe...
Pinard gave this one high praise - "faszinierender, mineralischer Duft von Aprikosen, Litschi, Cassis, Pfirsich, Limone, Kräutern und einem Hauch von Ananas", among other comments. The colour was a clear yet powerful golden; not very strong in the nose though, an almost close-lipped smell - some noticeable mineral though and fresh and smooth. [read the full post...]
We had this one with salmon and it lived up to the reputation of being a good fish companion. Easy to drink and strong enough to go with the fish. There is citrus fruit in the nose and mouth and some mineral-acidity. Green apple with a note of pepper. Compact, flavoursome and a nice presence. Not an extraordinary wine, but a very nice food companion.
Very clean colour, very clean taste; and extremely light despite 13%. Strong apple flavour, quite herb-y, a hint of melon. Easy to drink with or without food, smooth, balanced - was everyone's darling this night. Maybe not a truly "great" wine, but a pleasure to drink and at a really good price.
I think I will order a few bottles of this beauty with my next delivery. Really good value.
As Grüner Veltliner is now considered cool and trendy, I thought it was time to join the bandwagon and try what Austria has to offer. When I grabbed this wine the other night and put it in the fridge in a hurry, I was just after a Grüner Veltliner and had totally forgotten that this one was rated 93/100 by Falstaff Wineguide and Wein Plus. And that PdP said it needs a decanter. [read the full post...]