Suggestions Sought for an Austrian Tasting

I'm considering putting together a tasting of Austrian wines for our AWS chapter. My experience with these wines is limited to a few Gruner Veltliners and Rieslings along the lines of Gobelsburger, so I'm much in need of suggestions.

Our usual format is to have 4 whites and 4 reds, so the breakdown should approximate that. As a rule, wines also should be reasonably available here (Upstate New York) and in the less than $20 category, although the rapidly sinking US dollar might warrant greater flexibility.

Suggestions? How about food pairings?

Going farther afield, don't hestitate to include suggestions from other Central European countries as well.

I'm no expert, but depending on your group's level of exposure to Austrian wine you could certainly get lots of mileage with 4 gruners and 4 rieslings, plenty of ripeness and regional variation to showcase. And they are the "stars" of Austrian wine. Not that there isn't plenty of quirky red wine if you need that as well..

Hi Dan!

Quite difficult to answer this question without knowing what is available to you.
There are several possibilities:
- Do it similar to what Rahsaan proposed - Riesling and GV from different regions (e.g. Wachau, Kamptal, Kremstal, Weinviertel). This could be pretty educational.
- Try to find different varieties, typical for different Austrian Regions (Niederösterreich, Burgenland, Steiermark). This would of course inlude GV and Riesling but you might also consider Furmint, Zierfandler, Morillon (Chardonnay), Muskateller, Welschriesling, Neuburger, Sauvignon Blanc etc. for the Whites and Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt, St. Laurent and some blend for the reds.
- many more possibilites (all wines from one producer, same variety but different producers, same vineyard but different producers, same producer, same variety but different wineyards etc. ).

If this tasting is for a group that has no experience with Austrian wine I'd propose that you try to give a broader overview and don't concentrate on a single variety.

A proposal (without knowing what is available to you):
The whites:
- Riesling (Wachau, 2nd tier producer, maybe a young Federspiel, or Kamptal)
- GV (try Nigl Piri or something from Donauland or a Weinviertel DAC, lots of options here)
- Welschriesling or Furmint from Burgenland
- A Morillon or a Sauvignon Blanc from Styria

The Reds:
- Blaufränkisch (Burgenland)
- Zweigelt (Carnuntum or Styria)
- BF/ZW Blend
- St. Laurent or Pinot Noir (will be difficult in your price bracket)


Altough these suggestions are of course kind of unspecific, I hope they are still useful!

Regards, Robert

Dan

If you want to try something other than Gruner and Riesling, I would recommend the Furmint and Muscat from Heidi Schrock. The Muscat is a dry wine that blends in a little sauvignon blanc. The Furmint is also a dry, very aromatic and spicy white, that I really love. It reminds me a tiny bit of Chenin. I don't know if they are available for you. They are a Skurnik Theise import from Neuseidlersee-Huggeland. They fit your price criteria of around $20. Check the Skurnik website for details on the wines. Schrock is a great producer.

Best,
Marc

Dry Muscat is one of my favourite whites of all time: I love the combination of laser-crisp dryness and floral aromatics - this is so similar stylistically to the dry labruscas that I make at home.

Tried a very nice Eastern Ontarian (from Prince Edward County) Zweigelt on Saturday at Fiesta Buckhorn - the name of the winery escapes me at the moment. The wine was exemplary and spot-on, had a lovely colour and lots of cherry and white pepper, just like the Austrian versions - except that the grapevines are grown in a harsh continental climate and buried every winter. Still, a fantastic food wine.

Austrian table wines are amazing - including the reds. I cannot accept the view that Austrian reds are "offbeat" or lesser in any way to anything mainstream. I'd personally rather have a Blaufränkisch or Blauer Zweigelt any day over a Gamay, for example.

Our usual format is to have 4 whites and 4 reds, so the breakdown should approximate that. As a rule, wines also should be reasonably available here (Upstate New York) and in the less than $20 category, although the rapidly sinking US dollar might warrant greater flexibility.

I know of very, very few Austrians in the sub-$20 category that would be worth the bother.

A few years back, our local Gray Marketeer [who brings in about as much Austrian wine as anyone in the USA] had an FX Pichler Frauenweingarten [& maybe some von den Terrassens] in the general vicinity of $19.99, but at that price, it vanished almost immediately.

And he had a pile of Prager/Bodenstein chardonnay, for less than $20, but that disappeared, as well.

Anyway, eight wines at $20 gets you to $160, and I'd have a hard time finding four wines at $40 that would give you a good feel for Austria.

The good Gruner Veltliner & Riesling tends to be priced in Premier Cru white burgundy territory - generally about $50 to $75 - which means maybe three [or four] bottles on a $160 budget.

I.e. wanting to get a feel for what Austria has to offer on a budget of $160, with half being red, and half being white, would be like trying to get a feel for what BOTH Vosne Romanee AND Puligny Montrachet have to offer at that price - in other words, it's gonna be just about impossible.

If you're gonna stick with that budget, though, you might take a look at a low end Kracher, like the Illmitz Pinot Gris, although Wine-Searcher Pro shows only about three hits in the entire United States [and that's for all vintages].

I was going to go to wine-searcher just to see if I could make any other recommendations, but man - Austrian wine is even more rare than I realized. [I guess maybe I'm just spoiled because we have a Gray Marketeer down here who cares to import so much of the stuff.]

There's a guy over in Albany who has some Hiedlers & a Nigl:

http://www.capitalwine.net/Region/Austria/

But Mapquest says Albany is about 150 miles from Syracuse.

Even Chambers Street doesn't have all that much, and what they do have is just phenomenally expensive:

http://www.chambersstwines.com/Browse.asp?categoryid=20

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

Marc D wrote:

If you want to try something other than Gruner and Riesling, I would recommend the Furmint and Muscat from Heidi Schrock. The Muscat is a dry wine that blends in a little sauvignon blanc. The Furmint is also a dry, very aromatic and spicy white, that I really love. It reminds me a tiny bit of Chenin. I don't know if they are available for you. They are a Skurnik Theise import from Neuseidlersee-Huggeland. They fit your price criteria of around $20. Check the Skurnik website for details on the wines. Schrock is a great producer.

One of the beauties of the new rules on shipping in the US is that just about anything you want is available somewhere. I found the Schrock wines at several sites. The prices look good too.

Paul B. wrote:

Dry Muscat is one of my favourite whites of all time: I love the combination of laser-crisp dryness and floral aromatics - this is so similar stylistically to the dry labruscas that I make at home.

Austria and Labrusca? Who would have guessed? Will definitely look for a dry Austrian Muscat.

robs_r wrote:

A proposal (without knowing what is available to you):
The whites:
- Riesling (Wachau, 2nd tier producer, maybe a young Federspiel, or Kamptal)
- GV (try Nigl Piri or something from Donauland or a Weinviertel DAC, lots of options here)
- Welschriesling or Furmint from Burgenland
- A Morillon or a Sauvignon Blanc from Styria

The Reds:
- Blaufränkisch (Burgenland)
- Zweigelt (Carnuntum or Styria)
- BF/ZW Blend
- St. Laurent or Pinot Noir (will be difficult in your price bracket)

Thanks for the very specific suggestions. I will look for them.

Hi Dan,
Here's some other Austrian wine producers to look for besides Heidi Schrock,
Rebenhof from Styria
Salomon from Krems
Ernst Triebaumer from Neusiedlersee
Krutzler from Sudburgenland
Hopler from Burgenland

Salute

[James Roscoe]

Where is Ed Draves? I know he is in Buffalo, but he should be able to answer this question for you. The man is a fount of wine wisdom, plus he knows the area. Good luck with the tasting.

[David M. Bueker]

I know of very, very few Austrians in the sub-$20 category that would be worth the bother.

That just means you don't know much about Austrian wine Nathan.

Hofer & Huber both make a number of sub-$20 wines that are well worth drinking. Granted it requires some careful shopping, but Salomon, Hiedler and Hirsch have some offerings that haver around the $20 mark.

I would make use of some of the "greater flexibility" Dan refers to and try to maintain an average under $20, which wines like those from Hofer and Huber will help with. This will allow some flexibility to grab a couple of $25-$30 wines that used to be cheaper.