I continue to be hooked on Austrian Riesling!

........when I can find them up here in the frozen north! Some new arrivals (including a GV) on the shelves from Weingut Hirsch. My contact at the wine store thinks Gaisberg and Heiligenstein are the Rieslings to look out for, at a price.

WTN: `07 Weingut Hirsch Riesling Kamptal Zobing, Austria.

A bargain $19 Cdn, SC, 12% alc, shared with the staff at Rics Grill downtown who are keen to have a nice food-friendly riesling on the wine list. I did not serve too chilled as is my norm.

Color. Darkish straw with faint lemon hint.

Nose. Lime, "minerally/wetstones" they thought. Can go with that, also hint of peach and pineapple. No gasolein, even on day 2.

Palate. Initail thoughts were off-dry, light bodied, apple/pear, good to leave half hour to open. Very slight effervescence and good acidity. Very good mouthfeel, finish has complimentary structure and a strong mineral tone. Marta and Cayleigh both thought "hint of RS is perfect for this wine...we can sell this for sure". QPR!

**** will go back for more and try the GV too!

My contact at the wine store thinks Gaisberg and Heiligenstein are the Rieslings to look out for, at a price.

Your contact is right.

I'm partial towards Heiligenstein out of the two, but they are among the top sites in Austria and Hirsch makes some outstanding wines from there (both his Gruners and Rieslings). Hiedler and Schloss Gobelsburger also make some Heiligenstein Riesling worth checking out.

That sounds a nice one, Bob, which would appeal to me. I note Alc.12% which is good. In the Wachau vocabulary I often find myself preferring the lighter Federspiel to the theoretically superior Smaragd some of which come in at over 14% and seem somewhat clumsy to me. We don't have too big an availability of Austrian wine in most wine shops here though there is an Austrian expatriate specialist. He is an interesting man living in a splendid town house in a run-down part of Brussels full of immigrants. His main occupation is painting and sculpture and, as a sideline, he sells a wide selection of Austrian wines at rather high prices to provide a source of steady income http://www.ryslavy.com/ .

In the Wachau vocabulary I often find myself preferring the lighter Federspiel to the theoretically superior Smaragd some of which come in at over 14% and seem somewhat clumsy to me.

Interesting that you say that, Tim; last week I put on a small blind tasting for some friends of three 1999 Grüner Vetliners from Hirtzberger: A Federspiel and Smaragd from Rotes Tor, and a Smaragd from Honivogl. THe point was first to see if we could tell the Federspiel from the Smaragds (yes, no problem) and, then, if anyone could tell which two wines were from the same vineyard, and that proved to be a lot harder to do. Both Smaragds were excellent and very rich, but I came away preferring the Rotes Tor Federspiel which was really a complete wine, dry and with great concentration, and in no way "light".

We stumbled on Austria while going to Slovenia/Northeast Italy and realized what wonderful wine country it is. The Südsteiermark region along the border with Slovenia is a particular gem. Lots of terrific white wines and small producers who are glad to see you. I realize that the prices of some Austrian wines are way up there, but as a generalization about the actual scene on the ground that can be misleading. For uniformly high quality many are a bargain.