Austria Uncorked

SLS Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA
Tasted Monday, May 2, 2011 by WetRock with 1,536 views

Introduction

This was a rather large event featuring over 70 producers from Austria. Many white wines of Gruner Veltliner and Riesling were of crouse on hand mostly from 2009 and 2010 giving a snapshot of each vintage. There were winners from each but it seems like each vintage was a challenge for opposite reasons. The 09's seemed to suffer from roundness coming up short in acidity often. While the 2010's seemed to have strong mineral characters across the board but often suffered from a lack of fruit concentration. Top producers seemed to produce even wines in each vintage. There was also plenty of Zweigelt, Blaufranksch and St Laurent on hand. My experience is limited on these varieties but I do notice sameness among wines of Zweigelt and Blaufrankisch. Most seem to have a strong potting soil note on the nose and though this may be a regional character I do see this in wines from other areas, like in the reds of the Loire Valley.

Notable wines:
2008 Juris Reserve Pinot and St Laurent - Both displayed nice structure
2009 Veyder-Malberg Gruner
2004 Brudlmayer St Laurent
Both 2010 Gruners from Glatzer
2009 Gobelsburg Gruner Steinsetz
2009 Hiedler Riesling Gaisberg
2008 Hiedler Riesling Maximum
2009 Hirsch Gruner Kammerner Lamm
2006 Nikolaihof Riesling Steiner Reserve
Most of the Prieler lineup
The Kracher wines more than I expected - especially the 05 TBA #7
Paul Ach reds
2010 R Pichler Gruner
2008 R Pichler Riesling
2010 Prager Gruner
2010 Stadt Krems Riesling Reserve

Flight 1 (91 Notes)

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