My first foray into an awesome Austrian tasting

Seattle, WA, USA
Tasted Sunday, April 25, 2004 by Eric with 1,261 views

Introduction

For whatever reason, it took me a month instead of my usual 24-hours to put notes together on a fascinating tasting of Austrian wines. This was hosted by Jeff & Sara Fisher at their apartment with a view of the Cascade Mountains and a peek at the Space Needle. Jeff is my go-to dude for German wines at my favorite retailer, McCarthy & Schiering. He has been trying to get me interested in Austrian wines, and as part of that he put together a great tasting. In addition to the wines, we also enjoyed an authentic meal of wiener schnitzel, home made spaetzle, and sauteed cabbage. Since I don't get schnitzel or pork of any sort at home, I was seen sneaking into the kitchen to gorge myself on three helpings of the awesome schnitzel...

Anyway, onto the wines. Frankly, this was a pretty intimidating tasting for me, as most folks in attendance were in the trade (mostly retailers with some importers). Not to mention that I have frightfully little experience with Austrian wines. I did my best though and felt like I learned a lot. The standout wines were the 2002's from F.X. Pichler: these were so explosive, complex, candied and extracted to almost be a caricature. Two of the four were mindblowing, and I have a a feeling the other two, with time to unwind and settle down, will be equally interesting. Speaking in broad generalities: (1) Gruner is a whacky and amazing varietal; (2) Austrian Riesling is so very ripe, dry and alcoholic as compared to the German examples I have grown so fond of; (3) the two Austrian reds I tried leave me with a lot of trepidation about Austrian reds.

Flight 1 (1 Note)

While waiting for folks to arrive and settle we sipped this first wine. (Apart from the sparkler and the reds, all wines were tasted single blind.)

  • 2000 Weingut Willi Bründlmayer Brut

    Austria, Niederösterreich, Kamptal

    This was a nice way to start a tasting on an unseasonably sunny and warm day in Seattle. I have very little experience with Austrian wines and NONE with sparkling wines from that region. The reticent nose shows faint aromatics of yeast and flint with a sharp edge. The palate is fairly rich, especially as the wine warms, and shows heavy notes of mineral with a bit of tangerine. The bubbles in this one disappeared very quickly, and this wine really didn't seem to want to be a sparkler.

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Flight 2 (3 Notes)

We started out with a flight of Grüner Veltliner.

Flight 3 (3 Notes)

And one more set of Grüners.

  • 2002 F.X. Pichler Grüner Veltliner Smaragd 'M' 94 Points

    Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau

    Oh my goodness, this is amazing. The nose is explosively spicy and peppery with a hint of lime. The palate is really oily and ripe with tons of alcohol, but the wine handles it easily. This is damned long. Wowza, my wine of the tasting!

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  • 2001 Freie Weingärtner Wachau / Domäne Wachau Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Achleiten Flawed

    Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau

    Is this corky? Something smells off. The nose also shows fruit cocktail and some sweatsock. The palate is sort of funky and hot with a somewhat dirty element. The acidity here is mouthwatering. Not rated, as folks who were familiar with this wine indicated that it was a clearly off bottle (but not corked).

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  • 2002 Weingut Hirsch Grüner Veltliner Kammern 92 Points

    Austria, Niederösterreich, Kamptal

    This shows a very ripe nose with chalky notes. The palate shows lemon, stone and unreal acidity. This is totally dry and focused like a laser. Thinking about it provokes a Pavlovian reaction, as this one was that mouthwatering. Very different from the other wines. In fact, if the tasting had been totally blind I would have guessed Chablis in a heartbeat!

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Flight 4 (5 Notes)

Next we did a vertical of five Nikolaihof wines, all Riesling apart from the Elisabeth. There was lots of conversation about the reductive winemaking style he employs and some controversy around the Elisabeth which I hope was just a bad bottle.

Flight 5 (3 Notes)

Three more Rieslings.

Flight 6 (3 Notes)

And one final flight of Riesling. At this point, it was getting very easy to 'pick the Pichler' (say that 10 times fast) from the lineup on aromatics alone.

Flight 7 (2 Notes)

Finally we finished up with dinner including all the leftover whites and a couple of reds.

  • 2000 Johann Schwarz Rot

    Austria, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee

    My first Zweigelt. Wow, this wine shows some SERIOUS wood with a smell of road tar from heavily toasted oak. The palate has a blast of fruit and then clamps down with puckering acidity. This is not my thing, and even with the 'ideal' food match of schnitzel this is just not very enjoyable.

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  • 2000 Ernst Triebaumer Blaufränkisch

    Austria, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee-Hügelland

    This shows some up-front blueberry fruit and then LOADS of acid. Nope.

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