TNs: Austrian wine dinner with friends

Had an Austrian wine dinner with some friends Sunday night. 4 out of the 5 of us had very little experience with Austrian wine, so we wanted to build a fairly wide representation of styles and varieties. My tasting notes seemed to want to compare most of the wines to things I’m more familiar with, I guess that’s how I deal with the unknown. All-in-all a fun night with great wine, food, and company. I just wish Austrian stuff was easier to find in my market so follow-ups to really get into the wines would be easier.

2015 Schloss Gobelsburg Brut Réserve
Very high acid. Lemon, thyme, very light yeastyness. Elegant. Would believe it was Champagne if tasted blind.

Paired with smoked carrot puree drizzled with pumpkin seed oil

2013 Weingut Willi Bründlmayer Grüner Veltliner Loiser Berg
Pear and honeydew on the nose. Pear again, peaches, tangerine. Almost reminiscent of an unoaked Chard from a cool climate. Really beautiful wine.

Paired with raw, purple asparagus salad in a lemon parmesan vinaigrette and Jamon Serrano.

2012 Hiedler Riesling Gaisberg
Definitely Riesling with all that petrol on the nose. Very floral, violets, rose petals, and apricots. Ginger dominates the palate, with some citrus and stone fruit.
Served blind with the Hirsch and paired with cold smoked mackerel and hot smoked rock fish.

2013 Weingut Hirsch Riesling Reserve Gaisberg
No petrol, and much richer. Very floral as well, peaches, honeysuckle. Richer on the palate too, with a viscosity that coats the mouth. Candied orange peel, sharp acidity, some minerality on the finish. Both Rieslings are 13% but 2013 was a warmer year, leading me to think there is a little RS in the Hirsch. Great wine, my WOTN.
Served blind with the Hiedler and paired with cold smoked mackerel and hot smoked rock fish.

Most of us managed to correctly guess the Hirsch vs the Hiedler due to the richness and body the Hirsch showed.

2013 Heidi Schröck Weissburgunder
Green apples on the nose. Lemon on the palate - the entire lemon. Peel, pith, pulp, evolving all the way down. Some slatey minerality on the finish. Enjoyable, but not a “wow.”
Paired with fried potato crustinis topped with Harissa creme and green olives.

2014 Sattler St. Laurent
Dead ringer for a Beaujolais village. Light red fruit and spices (coriander, pepper) up front. Has a finish like strawberry yogurt. Again, enjoyable but no wow.
Both reds were paired with lamb and pork belly sausage stuffed savoy cabbage over rutabaga puree.

2008 Wallner Blaufränkisch Reserve
Great nose. Ripe berries, plums, dried leaves. The fruit is there on the palate as well, with some forest floor earthiness and graphite. Very well integrated tannins. Seems like a cool year Bordeaux. Love this wine, my runner up for the night.

Love the notes. Restaurant or cook at home? Sounds great either way.

I don’t know which market you are in, but you may find it helpful to connect with a retailer that will let you take advantage of importer pre-orders at a discount to regular retail. You have to buy by the case, but the availability and pricing usually make it worth it.

If you have the opportunity, I would recommend getting your hands on some Alzinger Smaragd level wines. For a wide selection of styles I would also add Prager, Knoll, and Hirtzberger to my short list.

With the caveat that this may simply be an example where our palates differ, I don’t think you did the Heidi Schrock any favors by serving it after the Rieslings.

Her style tends towards elegance with Pinot Blanc, and I personally would have flighted that bottle right after the bubbly. Doesn’t necessarily mean you would have liked it anymore, but the Rieslings would be a tough act to follow.

John:
This was at a friend’s house with three of us working together on the menu. I’m in Ohio, which has some very annoying liquor laws that tend to limit availability. Thanks for the recommendations, I’ll see what I can get my hands on. We actually sourced everything straight from the distributor and payed wholesale prices for it; perks of working on the service end of the industry. [cheers.gif]

Bob:
You are 100% right. The food pairing didn’t really work either, the harissa was too much for the wine. I probably need to revisit it in a different setting.

It looks like Vintner Select is the distributor for Terry Theise in Ohio. I know Terry has a few of the wineries you tried, so it sounds like you may already know the right people to buy from the pre-order next year for Alzinger, Nigl, Brundalmayer, Nikolaihof, and Gobelsburg.

Heidi’s wines are available from Terry too and her dessert wines are killer. FWIW, I prefer her dessert wines over Kracher’s. Her rose is also a wonderful and affordable Summer pool wine for us. Wonderful lady to boot.

This sounds like a really fine dinner with fine wines … even more successful as most of the wines (maybe with the exception of the Hirsch) are not the TOP-products of the represented producers … but even the mid-level wines seem to impress !

Looks like a fun night. Prices can be high in Austria and finding the wines is often difficult. Thanks for the data points.

That might be so in California, but not HERE: all above mentioned wines are available in Austria between 8.50 and 28 Euros (incl. taxes) … not always and everywhere the exact vintage, but nevertheless the last 1 or 2 vintages …

Quantities of the better wines in Austria are often quite small, sometimes even very small … and the regional demand is very vital … so one has usually to be quick …
What is really difficult is finding really mature vintages “in the market” - 10, 15, 20 years old … most has either been drunk up or been well stored in the cellars of the freaks …