Wines from Austria Tasting, March 26th 2007

I went to the Wines from Austria Trade tasting yesterday at Operakällaren in Stockholm. There were over 60 wineries participating. I didn't take much in way of tasting notes but recollect a few items of interest.

The Freie Weingärtner cooperative, based in Wachau, had some interesting wines to taste. I gave them all a B except for the 1981 Riesling Domaine Wachau which as not to my taste. I like more residual sugar in my aged Rieslings. However, it was showing classic petrol notes and mature characters. It was also bottled in a Burgundy-shaped bottle as the classic Germanic flute bottle was not yet used.

Weingut Nastl was present seeking an importer for Sweden. However, there are not a new winery and have been in business for over 300 years. Highlights for me were the Gruner Veltliner Kittmannsberg, B+, and the Eiswein which had an extraordinary long finish and I gave it an A.

Weingut Sepp Moser had a nice showing of wines. I gave them all a B though I didn't taste the "stickies".

The wines from Josef Umathum were very good. All had classic Pinot Noir characters, stewed fruit aromas, even though only one of the wines was actually Pinot Noir; the others were varieties such as Blaufrankisch or St Laurent. The Umathum range need a good 10 years of aging, lots of well-integrated tannins, to be at their best. I was told that in Austria these wines would typically be drunk much earlier though.

Website : http://www.winesfromaustria.com/eindex.php