Good food and so-so wines at Wein & Co in Salzburg

I like Wein & Co. OK, it is a chain, the bottles are overpriced, and the set-up is very commercial. But they have a good concept: garish shelving, lots of money-off gimmicks to persuade you to buy, very friendly staff who may or may not know what they are recommending to you, and some real treasures if you are prepared to spend time looking - I knew all this from previous visits to their branches in Vienna. This was the first time I tried their one of their wine bars, this one in a prime location in downtown Salzburg, 2 minutes from the Hotel Sacher. The food was simple but good and - given the 1A location - downright cheap (a large, well-assembled Ceasar salad for under 9 Euros and very good chicken liver pate with 4 different fresh breads for 6 Euros), so I came back the following night with friends. There are about 20 wines by the glass, all perfectly served in suitable glasses by smiling waitresses. Alas the choices available do not exactly represent the stellar heights of Austrian winemaking (odd, when the shop has some real goodies from FX Pichler through Jamek to Knoll...) But 4 small glasses of wine, a delicious meal and perfect service on Millionaires Row for 31,75 Euros? That's what I call a bargain.

• 2009 Polz Sauvignon Blanc Therese 86 Points

  Austria, Styria, Südsteiermark

  (1/27/2011)

  Intense grapefruit SB aroma with an exotic passion-fuit edge promised something really stunning, but the thin, disjointed entry passed on to a rough and not quite clean mid-palate with some bitterness, more grapefruit (skin, this time) and some not quite pleasant retronasal SO2. 86P

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• 2009 Alzinger Riesling Smaragd Loibenberg 83 Points

  Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau

  (1/27/2011)

  Does this actually smell of anything other than a hint of SO2? Perhaps a stale empty perfume bottle which once had something musky in it? The only hint of Riesling is the creamy, light entry with prominent acidity; amazingly this wine has no fruit flavours I can detect. No finish, zero, just a bit of sour winey-ness. If I had to guess, I might settle for a kind of Aligoté-Riesling-Pinot Gris blend, overextracted and not particularly well handled. 83P(-)

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• 2008 Heinrich Pinot Noir 80 Points

  Austria, Burgenland

  (1/27/2011)

  Pale, stale browinish-scarlet colour. Nasty, stewed, thin prune-juice scent which has been amply marked by the Oak Monster. Stale oak palate, reminiscent of inferior Riojas of days gone by. Impossible to imagine anyone would drink this for pleasure, but it will entrance Spätburgunder masochists looking for an easy way to spend about 30-35 Euros retail on some Pinot Pain. Polymorphous perversity aside, I feel for the unfortunate grapes that went into this wine - they never really had a chance. 80P
  
  PS This is made by Gernot and Heike Heinrich. There is another Heinrich - Johann Heinrich - in the Burgenland, who bottles a totally different, much more fruit-driven PN under the "Weisses Kreuz" designation, which I have found in the past to be very much more to my taste.

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• 2008 Heinrich Gabarinza 89 Points

  Austria, Burgenland

  (1/27/2011)

  Super, velvety, crushed overripe dark blackberry/loganberry aroma. Intoxicatingly heavy, a joy to sniff. The palate is surprisingly light: lively blackberry and ripest raspberry with plenty of acidity (which my suspicious and nasty mind wonders if it can be entirely the result of fermenting grape juice, or whether a friendly chappy in a white lab coat might not have helped out...) Well-integrated, smooth tannins and a decent finish. Should this be so juicily well-rounded at its tender age? Caveat emptor if you plan on cellaring this baby. Blaufränkish/Zwiegelt/Merlot blend. 89P

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Again, the food was better than the wine...

• 2009 Franz Hirtzberger Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Rotes Tor 85 Points

  Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau

  (1/28/2011)

  Aromatically restrained to the point of neutrality, this wine's fat alcoholic entry and monolithic, slightly oily midpalate are only enlivened by a healthy dose of white pepper. Perhaps it is just temporarily closed up, but I don't see where the 92P identified by a previous TN-writer can possibly be slumbering. 85(-86)P

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• 2009 Hans und Philipp Grassl Zweigelt Classic 84 Points

  Austria, Niederösterreich, Carnuntum

  (1/28/2011)

  Decent quaffing wine. Best grade of Heurige/wine tavern quality with all the implications - no faults, decent sweetness, body and some balancing acidity, but once swallowed, instantly forgotten. 84P

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• 2007 Castello di Ama Chianti Classico 86 Points

  Italy, Tuscany, Chianti, Chianti Classico DOCG

  (1/28/2011)

  Restrained, bland and thin, oddly neutral but for a hint of slightly watery cherry on the entry, this was a disappointment, given the famous name on the label and a high rating from Robert Parker. Yes, it was the best wine this evening, but hardly a stellar Chianti. 86(-87)P

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• 2006 Dankbarkeit Trockenbeerenauslese 82 Points

  Austria, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee

  (1/28/2011)

  Never thought an Austrian TBA could be this boring. Sweet, of course, but cloyingly so, with barely any acidity to balance the muscat-dominated sugar. 82P

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Since these pretty modest wines were (with the exception of the Grassl Zweigelt, which was inexpensive) the priciest Austrian selections available by the glass, if you are visiting with company the best strategy would probably be to choose a bottle in the shop and get it served in the bar (5,90€ corkage).