Blaufränkisch

On Friday, R. and I attended a wonderful tasting of blaufränkisch wines, hosted by Winemonger and the Austrian Cultural Forum. Two of our favorite producers were going to be there, Roland Velich of Moric, and Josef Umathum, so we could hardly pass up the chance. What we learned is that there is clearly a movement afoot to elevate blaufränkisch from the murky, fruit-forward and hyper-tannic style of old into wines that are crystalline and aspirational.

The venue: the Austrian Cultural Forum. If not the skinniest building in Manhattan, it must be close.

The crowd: 6 producers, and about 30 guests, writers and buyers and critics for the most part, a lively group, including David Schildneckt, with whom we had an enlightening conversation about some of Austria's even more obscure varietals.

Onwards. Nota bene: most of the wines were blaufränkisch, but there were a couple of other wines being poured as well.


Moric - this was a real treat, as R. and I are big fans of these wines. Apart from discussing the topography and chemistry of the various vineyards, we also spoke a little of his other projects, particularly his Grüner Veltliner... I am now chasing this down, it seems to be not impossible. In the course of that conversation, he noted that while Brundlmayer may be producing some red wines in the Kamptal, it isn't very common. In contrast, Grüner Veltliner has "historically" been the most common varietal planted in all parts of Austria - it's more that it has fallen by the wayside in Burgenland. Interesting... on to the blue... these wines were great, benchmark stuff. All unfiltered, unfined, elevage in 500 liter casks.

2008 Blaufränkisch - translucent, bright, fresh, but raw. Past releases indicate that this will settle hard, but in a very good way.

2007 Moric - This replaces the previous "village" releases in the middle of the range, and is instead a blend of grapes from the various Neckenmarkt (80%) and Lutzmannsberg vineyards. Spicy, but refined, restrained nose. Lots of oak showing at the moment, but again, past history favours the evolution of this wine.

2007 Sankt Georgen - a newer property, about 50km from Neckenmarkt, Moric's only single vineyard wine. Soil marked by more schist. Heather, herbs, dry, twiggy, tannic, but bright and still showing balance.

2007 Lutzmannsberg Alte Reben - if I remember correctly, these parcels are on a plateau, in poor sandy clay soils. Exuberant, creamy nose, mineral, lots of depth.

2007 Neckenmarkt Alte Reben - nine hillside parcels, mostly limestone and slate, this wine is somewhere in between the Lutzmannsberg and the Sankt Georgen, combining the essentials of both wines. Lovely, and still my favorite property.

2007 Jagini - a joint venture (didn't catch the name of the partner), grown in Zagersdorf (again, relatively remote from the other properties.) A brighter, simpler style blaufränkisch. Less raw than the entry-level Moric wine, but simpler too.

As an aside, seems Eric Asimov was at the “journalists’ luncheon” held before the tasting, and was similarly taken with the step-change improvement in quality. Note the comment by Stephen Bitterolf from Crush:

Roland suggests an interesting matrix when trying to describe traditional Blaufränkisch. Make a triangle with Nebbiolo on one point, Burgundian Pinot Noir on the other and the Rhône (I think Northern Rhône) on the final point. In the middle, with attributes suggestive of all three, is Blaufränkisch.




Weingut Umathum - another favorite producer of ours, we don't often get to drink his wines outside of Austria, but I know it's available in the U.S. Very nice to meet the man - when told that we were introduced to his wines by Viennese friends, he - and we - wondered why they never took us down to Burgenland to visit? Why indeed? One interesting bit of conversation concerned the use of Acacia barrels. Apparently, this became most prevalent after WWII, when oak was in limited supply. More interestingly though, Josef told the story of how the acacia became widespread in Europe. As the story went, Louis XIII somehow wanted to plant some acacia (from Africa?) at Versailles. Chronologically, this might be problematic, as XIII pre-dates Linnaean identification of the tree by a couple of centuries, but never mind. Maybe he just liked the pretty, un-named tree. Well, acacia turns out to be a bit of a weed, and self-propogated all across continental Europe, and so, it was widely available. Good story, no? Josef confirmed my thought that this wood lends a honeyed note, especially to white wines. He added though that he had stopped using acacia barrels several years ago, and had in fact sold off the last remaining one at his property in 2006. (That doesn't mean it is completely out of use, just not at Umathum.)

2008 Traminer - a cuvee of yellow and red traminer, with a strongly gewurtz-like tropical nose, but a fascinatingly dry palate. Well-played.

2008 Blaufrankisch - Umathum’s entry level product, very mineral driven, satisfying.

2007 Joiser Kirschgarten - a single vineyard wine, dark chocolate and cherry liqueur, a little aggressive right now.

2006 Joiser Kirschgarten - the oak was relatively prominent on the nose, less so on the palate, where schist and cherries were the theme. Herr Umathum expects this to be a GREAT wine, and for ’06 to be a long-lived vintage.

2004 Joiser Kirschgarten - Much more elegant, absolutely singing. Like all the other blaus, clear ruby red, I presume this bodes well for the younger wines.

2002 Vom Stein Sankt Laurent - very restrained and mineral driven, not particularly wild or spicy… I wonder if this is an anomaly? Schildnekt has lots to say on the subject, so I encouraged him to put together a Saint Laurent tasting such as this one.



Weingut Paul Achs - a first time producer for us to try. We had an interesting conversation about the evolution of blaufränkisch over the past 10-15 years. Just that recently, every blaufränkisch you could find was opaque, tannic nearly to the point of roughness, and purple if not inkily so. The handful of wines that didn’t fit this description seemed to reside only in the private cellars of forward-thinking enthusiasts. Whereas now, we saw a variety of more nuanced and balanced wines. I also got to pick Paul’s brain on Pinot Noir and its mad relative, Saint Laurent. It was his opinion that all else being equal, in Austria, Pinot Noir is the more simple, fruity wine, whereas Saint Laurent brings the spice. Now, I’ve definitely had wilder examples of Pinot Noir from Styria, but in my limited experience, the description makes sense.

2007 Pannobile Chardonnay - very green nose, oak is noticeable. Palate is bright, lucious and rich. Actually does remind me of the Velich chardonnays, but not as complex. Still not my cup of wine.

2008 Heideboden - a vineyard dominated by gravel and humus, though the wine seems to reject these conditions, and is instead quite simple, bright and fruity, though still nicely dry.

2007 Altenberg - sandy soil mixed with humus and loam, ideal terroir for blaufränkisch, so sayeth Paul. The upper slope of this vineyard is cooler, and thus planted with Saint Laurent, while the lower slope is planted with blaufränkisch. Floral and perfumed, rich, almost creamy, quite intoxicating, yet maintaining lightness and balance.

2007 Ungerberg - similar soil composition to the Altenberg, but a lighter, more elegant wine, spicy, herbal, very balanced. Delicious!

2009 Altenberg (barrel sample) - very purple, completely opaque! This is just post-malolactic fermentation, post-malo, very lively, but not just grape must. Paul says that the colour will change soon and become clear and light like the others.




Weingut Prieler - head oenologist, Silvia… Dr. Prieler to you… doctorate in microbiology… Anyways, our first Prielers, not our last. Ms. Prieler likes tea, so we've promised some Malaysian Boh... barter away!

2008 Pinot Blanc spends extended time on the lees. Off dry, apple-driven but crisp enough to be refreshing.

2007 Johannisberg - clay and red pebbles dominate this vineyard. Savoury nose of smoke and hard cheese. Smooth on the palate, very mineral driven.

2007 Leithaberg - a hillside property comprised of schist and limestone. Even smoother, more tannic and more floral than the Johannisberg.

2006 Goldberg - the prime property, also dominated by schist. Nose of flint, sparks and flowers, very fine on the palate, plenty of spice (allegedly from the soil, not from the old Austrian oak barriques in which this is aged.)



Weinbau Uwe Schiefer - what can I say, even though the tasting was three hours long, and there were only 6 producers, and maybe 30 attendees, we basically ran out of time, didn’t get to taste all of Schiefer’s wines, and missed out on Dorli Muhr entirely (seems this was a mistake – her ex-husband but still wine-making partner is Dirk Niepoort of port fame, and one influence is that they still crush whole clusters by foot!) Such was the intimacy of this event, that we could sample and speak to the winemakers at leisure. Wonderful!

2008 Grüner Veltliner Tschaterberg - smoky, good acidity upfront, weirdly tropical notes to go with the salad greens, and a soft finish. Eh.

2008 Konigsberg - this gets 12 months of oak barrique treatment, but doesn’t show it, instead lots of minerals and dark brooding fruit. A bigger wine than most of the others I’d say.

All in all, a great little event, got to meet some very interesting people doing wonderful things with this grape, just a superb way to spend Friday afternoon! Of course, all that drinking helps work up an appetite, so after a quick stop at Sakaya to see Rick and Hiroko, and to sample Shirataki's Jukusei no Jozen Mizunogotoshi Junmai Ginjo (you may recall hat I've been roundly invited to visit the brewery the next time I'm in Echigo), R. and I proceeded to Hearth to meet Paul Grieco, as I’d promised to open a bottle of the 1995 Chateau Musar Rose for him.

Reflecting on my recent tasting of this wine, in our enthusiasm to try tons of great wines, I wonder if we did justice to any of the wines – no regrets, of course, but spending an entire meal with this wine was illuminating – again that familiar Musar Rouge nose, but then on the palate, like a rose but not – cunning acidity, but so much more body and personality than any typical rose. Jared, behind the bar, suggested the R. López de Heredia Tondonia Rosado as a comparator, but as we now know, these are wines of vastly different stripes. So, a singular wine. Went tremendously with my dinner of...

...ribollita, ...

...pumpkin tortelli and...

...congilio (rabbit) stew with olives over polenta. And for dessert, R.'s favorite, panna cotta. Sorry, no photo... R. knocked out hers (and mine) at record pace.