Tonight I served a spinach and mushroom cheddar and bacon egg pie. Some people call this quiche, but then my husband couldn't eat it, could he? So French wine might have been more appropriate, but tonight we are sampling Austrian wine. Frankly, we don't drink that much Austrian wine around our house. It's not that we don't like it, but we actually don't see that many in the local stores. I believe this bottle came from Wine Library in New Jersey, a wonderful on line site for finding some fairly rare and scarce products.
This winery has some serious cred! On the banks of the Danube, the vineyards (and a hospital too) were established by Duke Leopold IV of Babenberg in 1210! There is a secondary grape source from a behest of the imperial Burggrave of Krems, Ulrich von Dachsberg, who presented the town with vineyards in 1452. That's 800+ years of winemaking. Until 1744, the Town Hall in the historical centre of the city, which is over a thousand years old, accommodated the press house and the maturing cellar. They were then relocated to the cellar in the "Corporis Christi Brotherhood". In 1915, the city acquired a wine cellar in the town moat. The estate wines of the city have been pressed there ever since. No wines or grapes have ever been bought from outside vineyards. All grapes are hand harvested, destemmed and pressed, then fermented in stainless steel tanks.
So when you screw the top off this bottle of wine (yes, it's a screwtop, but don't let that scare you!), you are drinking a little sip of Austrian history. It deserves your respect!
JUST THE FACTS:
This wine poured a very pale yellow and was clear.
On the nose, we detected citrus, apple and floral notes.
On the palate, there was grapefruit, honeysuckle, a nice acidity and a touch of pepper. There was no protracted finish, but one doesn't necessarily expect that in a crisp wine like this. Other reveiwers have noted stone fruit, white currant, fennel, kiwi, pear, passionfruit, almond and a variety of herb flavors.
The wine maker suggests that it tastes good young or you can cellar it for 3-4 years which is what we did.
The rating on this bottle are pretty much all in the 90-92 range.
This is another great under $20 bottle averaging $17 across the US.
They suggest enjoying it with typical Austrian foods such as pork and sausages, but admit it tastes good with Asian fair. I would add quiche to the list :)
Prost!
WINE QUOTE OF THE DAY:
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