TN: A sublime 1973 Trockenbeerenauslese

WINE TALK
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1973 Pieroth – Moncholor Kirchenstuck – Trockenbeerenauslese (Austria)

A blend of Traminer, Weiburgunder and Bouvier grape varieties. With a modest several course Chinese takeaway, I opened this rare bottle before dinner. Deep amber with a yellow gold and slightly green rim. The nose offers me rich apricot and ripe peach. The mouthfeel is sublime, just seamless liquid apricots. The waves of these dried fruits are well balanced with just enough acidity to prevent cloying. The long, long length carries on riding across my palate minutes after each sip. The finish is tangy and clean which makes me return for a number of sips. A privilege to open and share this bottle.

Bottle of 1973 Austrian TBA
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Main label of 1973 Austrian TBA
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Pristine fill level of 1973 Austrian TBA
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My glass of 1973 Austrian TBA
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Thanks Nicos for your wonderful note. I always enjoy the accompanying photos to your tasting notes.

[cheers.gif]

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My pleasure Mark. All I need to do is to work out how to post photos directly onto my initial post.

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Nicos,

it´s MÖNCHHOFER (or MOENCHHOFER) Kirchenstück … Mönchhof is a village on the lake Neusiedl between Austria and Hungary.

Interesting that this German company (Pieroth) bought sweet wine from Burgenland in Austria back then.

I also had very fine sweet wines from 1973, last time with a Riesling TBA Weingut Johann Kiss in half bottle, shared with Francois Audouze in Paris.

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Was Pieroth the company that tried marketing with private party wine tastings and sold the wine via retail representatives in the 1970’s?

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Yes, something like that - as far as i´m concerned - but I don´t know details (I´m Austrian).

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I bought a bunch of the 71 and the 72 brundlmayer TBAs, Icenwine and BAs and they have been very nice, excellent freshness despite 10W40 like density.

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I was never visited by one of those salesmen (was too young back then), but the firm was known for its direct marketing. For those who read German, here’s an article from 1981: Blaue Flaschen - DER SPIEGEL

And here’s a video making fun of it (Loriot) [wink.gif]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAOPXPYKC6U

Actually, there’s an interesting connection between the Pieroth firm and Austria. In the 1980s, they (illegally) blended sweet German wine with sweet Austrian wine that had been made sweeter with the (illegal) addition of Glykol. Here’s a summary of what had happened: Mutter aller Panschereien - WELT

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Steven: Thanks for the details. I remember the scandal re the mislabelling in the 1980’s… The marketing and the salesmen were a joke.

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Thanks Gerhard.

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Nice job Nicos.