WTN: How awesome is Schilcher? Very!

Have you ever had that simple wine that basically just causes all the feel-good chemicals your body produces to fire at once? I just did. And it's a simple, one note rosé wonder, Weingut Hiden Schilcher Klassik 2019 from Weststeiermark, Austria. And what is that one note? Screeching acidity. The grape Schilcher is made from, Blauer wildbacher, is notorious for its high acidity which is why it is rarely made as a red wine (I guess the combo of such acidity and tannin would just be too much? - kind of unfair since the one red Blauer wildbacher I had was pretty extreme but also pretty good!) but rosé is fairly common.

I guess wines have aposematic colours, too? The scary, darker than pink colour of the wine already warns the potential predator that something scary awaits. The first sniff is quite extreme: it smells of nettles. Which is good aposematism delivered through the nostrils because the sting of acidity is kind of like nettles too. It literally feels like there would be bubbles in the wine except this is not fizz. Personally, I just can't get enough acidity to suit my tastes so this is absolutely fine. And I also like the simple strawberry aromas (yes, there is also actual fruit in this wine) that accompany the nettle sting of acidity. Ok so maybe I'm weird, but this combo of extreme acidity and vibrant strawberry fruit just makes me wish this were a magnum rather a normal sized bottle.

16€. Buy again? Uhhh, yeah! It's more than I want to pay for a rosé but I mean it made me write a whole essay on a wine board where no one reads what I post anyway so I guess this is my summer's drink.

Philosophical question: why does the most extreme pleasure sometimes come from nettle-stings of pain and extreme simplicity and directness rather than nuance? I mean reading wine fora it would rather seem that nuanced wines are the most cherished? Not so with this one.

Philosophical question: why does the most extreme pleasure sometimes come from nettle-stings of pain and extreme simplicity and directness rather than nuance? I mean reading wine fora it would rather seem that nuanced wines are the most cherished? Not so with this one.

I can't speak for you, but wine is often all about context. Fresh simple wines like these can be extremely pleasing under the right circumstances. Like the end of a warm tiring day when you want something refreshing to evaporate on your tongue, and a rich nuanced Bordeaux would not be the answer!

Philosophical answer, from the Right Hon. Edmund Burke (1757):

"Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling. I say the strongest emotion, because I am satisfied the ideas of pain are much more powerful than those which enter on the part of pleasure. Without all doubt, the torments which we may be made to suffer are much greater in their effect on the body and mind, than any pleasures which the most learned voluptuary could suggest, or than the liveliest imagination, and the most sound and exquisitely sensible body, could enjoy. Nay, I am in great doubt whether any man could be found, who would earn a life of the most perfect satisfaction at the price of ending it in the torments, which justice inflicted in a few hours on the late unfortunate regicide in France. But as pain is stronger in its operation than pleasure, so death is in general a much more affecting idea than pain; because there are very few pains, however exquisite, which are not preferred to death: nay, what generally makes pain itself, if I may say so, more painful, is, that it is considered as an emissary of this king of terrors. When danger or pain press too nearly, they are incapable of giving any delight, and are simply terrible; but at certain distances, and with certain modifications, they may be, and they are, delightful, as we every day experience...."

"I shall only observe that no smells or tastes can produce a grand sensation, except excessive bitters, and intolerable stenches. It is true that these affections of the smell and taste, when they are in their full force, and lean directly upon the sensory, are simply painful, and accompanied with no sort of delight; but when they are moderated, as in a description or narrative, they become sources of the sublime, as genuine as any other, and upon the very same principle of a moderated pain. “A cup of bitterness”; “to drain the bitter cup of fortune”; “the bitter apples of Sodom”; these are all ideas suitable to a sublime description."

Wow, Saina... a review of a Schilcher wine... and a positive one at that!! That's pretty rare.
When I visited Steirmark in the Fall several yrs ago, I fell in love with that wine. When I had my first one in Graz, I was repulsed by my first taste. But w/ the toast w/ lard on it (whatever that dish is called?), I really grew to like it.
Certainly not a "fine" wine, it does have a place at the table in the Steirmark.
Tom