"I mentioned the bisque"

WINE TALK
1

Last night I fulfilled my spousal obligation of accompanying my wife to see Wicked in SF (tickets were my Xmas present to her this year). The nod to my tastes was dinner at Michael Mina, which we had never been to. They have a pre-theater menu, which makes it relatively affordable, and a reasonable tab for the quality and service. Not sure I would have cared to pay double or more for the regular prix-fixe menu.

But the highlight of the night was a wine by the glass at MM:
2001 Prager Riesling Smaragd Hollerin. This was just singing, very slight hints of petrol on the nose, along with a touch of fruit and some nuttiness. Those flavors came through in spades on the palate, with intense, deep fruit, undertones of roasted nuts and petrol, perfect balance, and a long finish. We had this in the bar to start, then ordered more to accompany dinner.

I don’t have any of this particular wine, but it reminds me that other 2001 Austrians are in a very nice place at the moment, time to drink!
Cheers

2

Alan,
I have a bunch of Hirtzberger Singerriedel and some Prager in my cellar.
I think this stuff is wonderful.
Keep up the good work here.
Nikolaihof Steiner Hund Riesling and FX Pichler are not bad either.
Austrian wines rock. Unfortunately, they are quite expensive and rare here.
Cheers.

3

Florida Jim Cowan has been crowing about this wine (Hirtzberger Sinerriedel) for years and first clued me in. The 05 is revelatory, 99 rocks, and it’s such a great wine. With premox pushing me away from white Burgs, I’ve headed to Austrian whites and Muscadet.
alan

4

Actually, it was Jim who helped steer me in a few directions as I was starting to explore Austrian wines back about 8 or 9 years ago, I still owe him thanks for that [bow.gif]

5

Does anyone know if the wines are more affordable in Austria? We have an office in Austria that we do a fair amount of work with, and I wonder if I could have some carried over at a decent price break.

6

Much more affordable in Austria. Much.

7

Fantastic. I’m a big fan of Riesling, but haven’t had much from Austria since the distribution is poor where I live. I’ll definitely have to go wine hunting when I get over there.