So what is it about Austrian wine that has attracted what seems to be the entire high-end wine-writing community of Manhattan into the quaint Seasonal Restaurant on west 58th street for a tasting – and new news – about Austrian wine?
For one thing, the Austrian wine industry has been struggling for over 20 years to improve quality, and succeeding – many of the most respected wineries are operated by very talented young winemakers. Happily, this new generation of quality wines is hitting the market exactly when many Americans, especially from the much touted "millennial generation," are looking for wines off the beaten track. Tired of California Cabs and buttery over-oaked Chardonnay, this group of adventurous wine drinkers are looking for the next big thing.
Today the Austrian wine industry, in the person of Michael Thurner, President of Austria’s Fine Brands, led a blind tasting for wine writers in which he mixed a varietal from a different country with each flight of Austrian wines. So picture a group of wine writers sitting at impeccably placed tasting tables, with gleaming Riedl glassware (also Austrian) and good brown bread (ditto) tasting seven flights of wine.
The word "flight" typically refers to two or more glasses of wine of a similar variety or vintage. In this case, Mr. Thurner chose to create three-glass flights "suggestive" of a single varietal or similar blend. I put the word "suggestive" in quotes because even though the flights were named after the varietals, at least one in three was a "similar" varietal from another country. For example, in the Gruener Veltliner we had a Puligny Montrachet.
At the end of the day, it was interesting to compare the quality of wines from Austria with the best houses of Bordeaux and the Northern Rhone. Yet any savvy student already knows that Austrian wines represent quality. They are very sophisticated yet easy to drink, and also easy (for the most part) on the pocketbook.
The only difficult part – to be completely honest – is to pronounce the names of both the regions and the grapes. It is one thing to memorize how to spell them, quite another how to say them properly. Stay tuned for more news on wines from Austria.
Article comments
1 - awinegoddess
Great article Marisa about Austrian red tasting. I know what you mean though with the pronunciation. I found some help.