Fritz Wieninger‏ - Wines from Vienna

There are probably not many capital cities that have vineyards located with the city boundaries - probably even fewer that can claim to produce wine of any note.

However, there is a ring of forested hills on the northern side of Vienna whose foothills provide suitable growing conditions for grapes.

Historically, most of the wine produced in Vienna was intended to be consumed young and unquestioningly in the city's wine taverns known as heurige - these started off as a cottage industry when on August 17, 1784 Emperor Joseph II granted subjects the right to sell their own produce on a set number days of the year.

Over time, the popularity of heurige has grown to the point where on any summer's eve, the main street of Grinzing, Vienna's heurige district, is lined with tourist coaches of people "doing the heuriger experience".

During my time in Vienna, I went to quite a few heurige where the wines tended to be at best light and crisp. And whilst Vienna still does not produce anything to threaten the superiority of the Wachau (in terms of either quality or price), Fritz Wieninger's wines show a marked step up from basic heurige table wine.

The first wine, a 2010 Grüner Veltliner from the Vienna Hills, was fresh and perfumed; this was followed by a GV from Herrenholz which was richer, but more restrained.

Next came a Riesling from the Vienna Hills which is still not bottled commercially, but had been brought over as an early trade sample - 2010 was not an easy year for much of Austria with late frosts, cool conditions and frequent sporadic rain to contend with.

Moreover, although Vienna gets a double boost of warm southerly air plus a degree or two extra warm from the city itself, this Riesling was still high in acidity and a little underwhelming.

For his final wine, Fritz showed me something a little different and special - from 50 year-old vines in Nussberg, and with 18 months' aging on the lees, this one was impressively rich, creamy and full in a much more old-school fashion and still needs another 6-12 months in bottle to start showing its best.

Fritz explained that the characteristics of this wine, from the Nussberg vineyard (incidentally, round the corner from where I used to work) come from the terroir and not from any wine-making technique.

Very different from Austria's "new-style" wines, which match with modern international cuisine, this would pair well with equally traditional Viennese food, such as meat, a potato salad or even a Wiener schnitzel.

Yields for the 2010 wine (not due for release for some time yet) will be well down due to a wild board running amok through the vineyard - Fritz is still having talks with the local hunters about how to avoid a repeat incident.

Wieninger's wines are distributed in the UK by Noel Young Wines of Cambridge.

The Wines

Grüner Veltliner, Vienna Hills, 2010, £11.95
Grüner Veltliner, Herrenholz, 2010, £13.50
Riesling, Vienna Hills, 2010, £11.95
Nussberg Alte Reben, 2009, £19.00

Links

Wieninger - http://www.wieninger.at/

Noel Young Wines - http://www.nywines.co.uk/

Rotes Haus Gets Naked

The "Rotes Haus"

Having recently become a Naked Angel, I was keen to have a chat with Gerhard Lobner at the recent Annual Tasting of Austrian Wines in London about his Rotes Haus wines, sold exclusively through Naked Wines in the UK.

The Rotes Haus vineyards are located in the 17th and 19th districts of Vienna - just round the corner from where I used to live and with a view over the city.

The first wine we tried was a Gemischter Satz; otherwise known as a mixture of odds and sods, the grapes for this wine not only all come from same vineyard, but are also picked and fermented together, all at different stages of ripeness.

With mostly Grüner Veltliner (but also a further 12 varieties) in the mix, the end result was a crisp and balanced wine with some aromatic notes and a richness on the finish due to around 4% traminer.

Gerhard explained that the subtlety and harmoniousness of the flavours is much better achieved through fermenting the grapes together than through blending separate finished wines - even if it means that the end result is effectively decided at the moment the decision to pick the grapes is taken.

This wine was picked as the winner of the European Wine Bloggers' Conference in Vienna last year and bought up by Naked Wines for exclusive sale in the UK.

Refreshing and crisply aromatic with some Old-World restraint, it is right on the zeigeist for mid-level whites in the UK at the moment. If you've done oaky Aussie Chardonnay, had enough of ripe NZ Sauvignon and are now looking for an alternative to Pinot Grigio, this could be just the thing.

The second wine was Gerhard's Grüner Veltliner which Naked snapped up straight away after tasting - again for exclusive sale in the UK. And I can see why - it is a more interesting wine than the Gemischter Satz, shows plenty of typical GV aromas of lentils, celery and white pepper and has good structure.

The final wine Gerhard showed me was a Riesling from Ried Alsegg under his Mayer am Pfarrplatz label which is currently not distributed in the UK - the Mayer wines are from different vineyards to the Rotes Haus and are in general lighter in style.

The Wines

Rotes Haus Gemischter Satz, 2009, 12.5%
Rotes Haus Gruener Veltliner, 2009, 13%

Mayer am Pfarrplatz, Riesling Ried Alsegg, 2009, 13%

Links

Rotes Haus - http://www.weingut.rotes-haus.at/

Mayer am Pfarrplatz - http://www.pfarrplatz.at/

Naked Wines - https://www.nakedwines.com/

F.X. Pichler

FX Pichler's Kellerberg vineyard

F.X. Pichler is one of the great names of Wachau wine and it was a real pleasure to meet current Chief Winemaker Lucas Pichler (son of Franz "F.X." Xaver) and wife Johanna in London for the Annual Tasting of Austrian Wines recently.

They make a glamorous couple - she elegant and understated, he intensely rugged with charismatic charm; together they are almost a metaphor for their own wines.

I was keen to work through the wines in order to get a sense of Wachau terroir; with very few exceptions, all their wines are from single vineyards and were from the moderately warm 2009 vintage - cooler than 2008, but not as difficult as 2010.

F.X. Pichler's vineyards are located towards the warmer, eastern end of the Wachau where achieving the top Smaragd level of ripeness is easier, and the wines correspondingly bigger and riper, than at the cooler western end.

We started with a mid-level, light and refreshing Riesling Federspiel from Loibner Burgstall which showed lots of aromatic white pepper and elderflower.

Next came a Riesling Smaragd from the Dürnsteiner Hollerin vineyard which has a warm, south easterly aspect; this wine felt richer and fuller with a graceful minerality and finesse.

A Smaragd from Loibner Steinertal at the eastern end of the valley showed racy minerality and a long finish.

Next came the Dürnsteiner Kellerberg Smaragd Riesling which enjoys a special microclimate with steep terraces, a south easterly aspect with early-morning sun and large diurnal temperature swings due to the cool air flowing in from the bordering woods at the ends of the day, thereby extending the growing season.

As a result of all this, the wine shows a great balance of ripe exotic fruits, linear structure, mineral length and great elegance.

A Grüner Veltliner from the same vineyard was equally impressive lots of typical aromas of celery, white pepper and lentils and, again, great structure and minerality on the finish.

Finally, the last wine was the "M" Smaragd Grüner Veltliner, a blend of grapes from Pichler's top two vineyards ("M" standing for Monumental) producing a richly complex and intense wine which is also at the same time delicate and nuanced; full-bodied with great minerality and slightly smokey, tabaccoey notes, it is impressive now but Lucas feels will not show its best until around five years from the vintage.

The grapes for the "M" come mainly from the steep slopes of the south-facing Loibner Berg vineyard and are usually harvested several weeks after the grapes for the single vineyard wine, no mean feat when the usual harvesting range is from October to early December.

The minimum alcohol content for a Smaragd is 12.5%, but these wines were at almost New World levels of 13% and 14%; yet, whilst undeniably big, they expressed this ripeness with a distinctly Old-World degree of finesse as rich, full-bodied mouthfeel, balanced with great linear structure, extract and mineral length.

F.X. Pichler wines are available through Richards Walford Importers of Wine in the UK.

The Wines

Loibner Burgstall Federspiel, Riesling, 2009, 12%
Dürnsteiner Hollerin Smaragd, Riesling, 2009, 13%
Loibner Steinertal Smaragd, Riesling, 2009, 13%
Dürnsteiner Kellerberg Smaragd, Riesling, 2009, 14%
Dürnsteiner Kellerberg Smaragd, Grüner Veltliner, 2009, 14%
"M" Smaragd, 2009, 14%

Links

F.X. Pichler - http://www.fx-pichler.at/

Richards Walford Importers of Wine - http://www.r-w.co.uk/

Terroir and Vintage in Austria's Wachau Valley with Domäne Wachau

A panoramic shot of the Wachau, facing north with Dürnstein just visible in the far left.

I have been enthusiastic about Austrian wines for many years, but it was only recently at the Annual Tasting of Austrian Wines that I gained a really thorough insight into the subtle nuances of terroir and vintage fluctuation from Roman Horvath MW, Managing Director of Domäne Wachau (who had organised my invitation to the event).

In very general, perhaps oversimplified terms, Austrian terroir has three main distinct regions for its top white wines - the Wachau and surrounds for minerally Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners, Styria in the south for crisply aromatic Sauvignon cultivated at altitude and Burgenland on the edge of the Pannonian plain near the border with Hungary for rich dessert wines.

I had always thought of the beautiful, meandering, UNESCO-protected Wachau valley as relatively homogeneous with the key differences being aspect (north bank vs south bank) and elevation (from the flat vineyards on the valley floor to the elevated and steep terraces higher up).

However, as Roman explained, the key distinction is actually east-west along the valley. This is due to a combination of climatic and geographic factors - warm air from the south enters the valley at its eastern end, whilst cold northern air enters from the western end. In the middle is a sharp bend creating two quite distinct meso-climates, whilst along the north side cool air flows down from the forested Waldviertel plateau at night, thereby increasing the diurnal temperature variation and extending the growing season.

Whilst the wines from Domaene Wachau's "Terrassen" range are blended from gapes from all along the valley to produce a balanced style, those from a specific vineyard will show characteristics of their terroir, slightly fuller and less perfumed to the east and lighter, fresher with more floral notes and spice from the west.

Whilst Austria generally has a fairly reliable climate, I know from personal experience that it can rain for weeks on end in what is supposed to be summer and this was the case for 2010, making for a tough vintage with yields 30% - 50% down due to early frosts compared to a much easier 2009.

However, whilst this makes life harder at the entry-level point, Roman feels that the top, single-vineyard Smaragd Rieslings from and GVs from 2010 have the potential to be even better than the 2009s.

It was not possible to try these wines as they are still being aged on their lees in the winery with only the lighter Federspiels released so far from 2010.

I sampled the wines Roman had brought to show, mostly 2009s, and you can find links to more detailed reviews of these from earlier tastings below.

Of note was that whilst the 2009 Terrassen wines are showing well now, the single vineyard wines really need another six months or so in bottle to start to open up - or some time in a decanter.

The final wine we tried was a Beerenauslese from 2008 - a lighter fresher style than the Burgenland dessert wines due to the slightly cooler climate. In general, conditions are warm enough to achieve BA in 8 out of ten years, but TBA-level sweetness is only possible in around 3 to 4 years out of 10.

Roman finished off by explaining that international demand for his wines now means that he has no problem in selling them, especially with the low 2010 yields - but there is no opportunity to increase volumes given the size limitations of the Wachau Valley itself where the winery has 440 hectares of land (around 30% of the entire Wachau area).

As a result, the only way up is through quality and pricing - and ever-more specific terroir will surely play a big part in that.

The wines are imported into the UK by Alliance Wine.

The Wines

Grüner Veltliner Federspiel Terrassen 2010, 12% (reviewed here)
Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Terrassen, 2009, 13%
Riesling Smaragd Terrassen, 2009 13% (reviewed here)
Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Achtleiten, 13.5%
Riesling Smaragd Kellerberg, 2009, 13.5%
Cuvée Beerenauslese Terrassen, 2008 9.5% (reviewed here)

Links

Domäne Wachau - http://www.domaene-wachau.at/

Alliance Wine - http://www.alliancewine.co.uk/

Feiler-Artinger's Dessert Wines‏

My introduction to Austrian dessert wines came at a restaurant in Vienna many years ago after a friend had recommended I try the Meinl am Graben restaurant located in the upmarket Julius Meinl food store on Vienna's central Graben.

The food and service in the restaurant, and likewise the decor, was smart, distinctly modern and sophisticated but with an eye to tradition.

I would go on to have many superb meals, and wines, there, but on this first evening, looking down the floodlit Graben at the gilded Plague Monument, as ordered dessert I asked for a Tokaji to go with it. "Would you like an Austrian dessert wine ?" the waitress asked.

Naively, I queried "Does Austria make dessert wines ?". With superbly good grace, she let me off with a mock-severe face and said "I bring you an Austrian dessert wine", returning with a choice of three bottles.

I forget how we decided which one to try, but I do remember it was a Feiler-Artinger Ruster Ausbruch, a liltingly poetic mouthful of a name.

Ruster Ausbruch is a sweet wine from Rust, a picturesque historic village full of storks' nests on the edge of the Pannonian plain and next to the shallow Lake Neusidl which forms part of the border with Hungary.

Here, warm southerly air helps create the damp, humid conditions in which the botrytis fungus thrives before the sun burns off the morning mist to provide ripeness to the grapes, as the picture below shows.

The Ausbruch tag, unique to this part of Austria, means the sweetness level is between Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese.

The wine itself was a revelation - mouthfillingly unctuous and deeply complex with rich, marmaladey fruit and a refreshing structural acidity and finesse, it is superb.

I got a chance to sample it once more at the Annual Tasting of Austrian Wines in London recently and was impressed all over again.

UK importer Clark Foyster Wines had brought along three stickies from Feiler-Artinger and, after this one, I also sampled a Pinot Cuvee made with Pinots Blanc and Gris in the mix.

This was lighter and fresher in style than the previous wine, but equally complex, long and with impressive finesse.

Finally, and somewhat in the wrong order, I tried the Beerenauslese, one grade of sweetness down from the previous two. This felt like the little brother of the Ausbruchs or, as I noted down at the time, the same wine but with the volume turned down just a little.

The Wines

Feiler-Artinger Beerenauslese 2009, 10%, Burgenland
Feiler-Artinger Ruster Ausbruch, 2007, 11%, Burgenland
Feiler-Artinger Ruster Ausbruch Pinot Cuvee, 2007,11%, Burgenland

Links

Feiler-Artinger - http://www.feiler-artinger.at/

Clark Foyster Wines - http://www.clarkfoysterwines.co.uk/

Forget-Chauvet Premier Cru Brut Selection, NV Champagne, France‏

There's no denying that Champagne has a certain cachet - other sparkling wines may pop and fizz like Champagne, but they don't quite make the same statement when there is a cause for celebration.

For many years, I failed to see the point of Champagne - over-hyped and over-priced, it always struck me as a triumph of marketing over common sense.

Last year, however, I went to a number of Champagne tastings and began to see what the fuss was all about, remembering again why I had been so impressed by the samples on offer at the end of a cellar tour at one of the better-known Champagne houses in Epernay over 20 years ago.

A chalky hill 90 miles north east of Paris may seem an unlikely place for what is generally held to be the world's most prestigious sparkling wine - and indeed the still wine it produces is generally quite thin and acidic.

The montagne de Reims

But, a few years' aging on its lees and a secondary fermentation in bottle can turn this ugly duckling of a wine into an elegant oenological swan.

Champagne's approach to wine-making is surprisingly New-World, with blending across vineyards and vintages to achieve a consistent "House Style" with little sense of specific terroir, which puts it somewhat at odds with most of the rest of France.

A further parallel with the New World is that many Champagne houses do not grow all their own grapes but buy in from growers across the region.

The grapes used for Champagne, however, are amongst the most noble there are - Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the great grapes of Burgundy (plus the lesser-known Pinot Meunier which it is generally not found anywhere else).

There are of course Champagnes and Champagnes - there are around one hundred Champagne houses and 19,000 smaller vignerons (vine-growing producers) in Champagne, but only a small number of these have achieved the kind of household-name status that allows them to command premium prices.

The producer of this Champagne Brut, Forget-Chauvet (pictured left), is based in Ludes and is part of the Patrimoine des Terroirs association, whose wines have I have been finding impressive recently, so I had reasonably high expectations.

Ludes, according to the company's website, is a "typically Champenois village situated 8km from Reims with 275 hectares of vines on the Montagne de Reims" (see map below for more details on location).

Pale gold in the glass, it pours with a fine mousse and is initially crisp and elegant, with a rich, creamy texture from long aging on the lees. There is plenty of ripe fruit acidity, giving both good structure and balance.

After around 90 minutes, with a bit more air and warmth, typically complex Champagne aromas of nutty, oatmealy brioche and biscuity yeastiness are revealed whilst the texture becomes rich and mouthfilling with a long, refreshingly smooth yet savoury finish.

Possessed of plenty of finesse, it also has the richness to match with food and we had this with roast pork.

Forget-Chauvet is not yet available in the UK, but costs €15 per bottle in France and can be ordered from the producer. At that price, it represents much better value than many of the household-name brands that are more instantly familiar.

Champagne Forget-Chauvet - 8 rue Victor Hugo 51500 LUDES - Tél. +33 3.26.61.11.73, email forget.chauvet@wanadoo.fr.

Provided for review.

Links

Forget-Chauvet - http://forget-chauvet.isasite.net/

Patrimoine des Terroirs - http://patrimoinevin.canalblog.com/

Domaine des Cassagnoles, 2009, Côtes de Gascogne IGP - Laithwaite's

I've had two bottles of this southern French white from Laithwaite's under their 100% satisfaction guarantee; drinking the second, I remember now why I didn't bother to write up the first.

Colombard is something of a workhorse grape and is generally distilled into Armagnac; its main claim to fame is that it retains some freshness even in the sweltering heat of a Gascon summer - noble, then, it is not.

So full marks for pluck to anyone who tries to make a decent table wine out of Colombard; sadly, however, the end result in this case is something of a curate's egg.

On the nose, it is herbaceous, pungent and mineral and rather similar to a New World Sauvignon. Initially, the palate is also quite full and honeyed yet crisp.

Unfortunately, it is on the mid-palate and finish where it all ends in disaster - tart, thin, mean and chalky, it is almost quite unpleasant, especially after the reasonably promising build-up.

Winemaker Gilles Baumann, originally from Alsace, writes on the back label that his aspiration for the wine is for it to be crisp, aromatic and a benchmark for the region.

He clearly has not quite succeeded yet; whilst the Alsace influence is clear here - it is indeed aromatic with typical Alsatian fullness and structure - he just needs to sort out the finish and he may then have something worth talking about. Sadly, however, the rest of this particular bottle is going in the cooking.

Interestingly, Wikipedia suggests the grape may be related to Chenin Blanc - that would certainly explain the mouth-stripping acidity; with a bit more time, the acidity fades, but then so do the aromatics.

Inexplicably, it has a medal from the Concours General Agricole de Paris 2010, whilst the Laithwaite's website describes the wine as their bestselling white for 15 years.

£7.49 (plus delivery) from Laithwaite's.

Links

Laithwaite's - http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/