Moderators: Jenise, Robin Garr, David M. Bueker
David M. Bueker
Riesling Guru
34424
Thu Mar 23, 2006 11:52 am
Connecticut
Bruce Hayes
Wine guru
2935
Wed Mar 22, 2006 10:20 am
Prescott, Ontario, Canada
Bob Parsons Alberta. wrote:Tim, you might have some problems eh?!!!!
Salil wrote:Austria - woo hoo!
2002 F.X. Pichler Riesling Smaragd Loibner Steinertal
I've had this wine a handful of times in the past year, and each time it's been awesome. This time is no different.
Fantastic aromatics; brightly fruited and very floral but with such intense white pepper and spicy notes that it's easy to mistake this for a Gruner. Very rich and layered in the mouth, combining primary fruit and mineral notes with developed smoky and creamy elements, expansive and round but with good acidity underneath keeping it nicely balanced. Delicious.
Salil wrote:Austria - woo hoo!
2002 F.X. Pichler Riesling Smaragd Loibner Steinertal
I've had this wine a handful of times in the past year, and each time it's been awesome. This time is no different.
Fantastic aromatics; brightly fruited and very floral but with such intense white pepper and spicy notes that it's easy to mistake this for a Gruner. Very rich and layered in the mouth, combining primary fruit and mineral notes with developed smoky and creamy elements, expansive and round but with good acidity underneath keeping it nicely balanced. Delicious.
David Cobbold wrote:My comment derives more from a general impression that reminds me how few bad wines I have tasted from this country, and how many good ones, and then compares this to other cases...This comes, I believe, from a complex mixture of elements : place of origin, grape and human individuality.
Bill Hooper wrote:Salil, thanks for the note. It goes to show that if your terraces didn’t go sliding into the Donau in ’02, you likely made pretty good wine. The Steinertal is also one of the two most stylistically distinctive vineyards in the Wachau (along with the Achleiten) and seems, much like the Berg Schlossberg in the Rheingau, to make better wines in rain-soaked years because of its potential to shed water quickly and efficiently. All that said, F.X. Pichler on the label trumps all of course.
David Cobbold wrote:I am really pleased that you picked on Austrian wines as a focus topic.
I do not want to single out a single producer, or, even less, a single wine, for this contribution, but just to say that I have found, in all my tastings over the past seven years or so, that Austrian wines seem to me to stand out as being of the highest average standard of those of any country in the world. Naturally it is almost impossible to benchmark such a statement in any reasonably precise way, but then wine is neither necessarily reasonable, nor is its appreciation quantifiable with any degree of precision.
My comment derives more from a general impression that reminds me how few bad wines I have tasted from this country, and how many good ones, and then compares this to other cases. I would also add that the good ones have that extra something that us wine lovers look for more and more, which is individual, and often singular, character. This comes, I believe, from a complex mixture of elements : place of origin, grape and human individuality. But, in the case of Austria, and given the difficulties that this country's wine industry has undergone over the past 50 years or more, I think that there has also been an extraordinay collective drive, mainly fuelled by a few small producers, but also well assisted by intelligent educational and promotional campaigns, to make the most of what they have, and get the message around with efficiency. I think that the case of Austrian wine today is exemplary and should be looked at closely by most other wine producing countries in the world. It has all the key ingredients for success, and those include coming from behind! We should remember that Austrian wines represent less than 1% of the world's production, and that it is perhaps easier to make that a good contribution than when you produce much more.
enjoy your discoveries
David Cobbold wrote:I was talking about Austrian wines in general.
I should say that I live in France, and I have travelled 4 or 5 times to Austria to taste widely there at wine fairs etc, and have also tasted Austrian wines occasionally in other countries. I realise that such sweeping statements can be fairly meaniningless, but this is certainly my current opinion. I have worked now for nearly 30 years in the wine trade, but operate now as a wine writer, broadcaster and teacher and have no vested interest whatsoever in any particular wine or groupe of wines.
David M. Bueker
Riesling Guru
34424
Thu Mar 23, 2006 11:52 am
Connecticut
David M. Bueker
Riesling Guru
34424
Thu Mar 23, 2006 11:52 am
Connecticut
David Cobbold wrote:And Brundlmayer makes some very good Riesling too
Bruce Hayes
Wine guru
2935
Wed Mar 22, 2006 10:20 am
Prescott, Ontario, Canada
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