Monday, June 9, 2008

a quick look at VieVinum

glad to be back in Vienna once more, yet another beautifully run wine-fair, couple things to report:
1. Lower Austria whites quite lovely in 07. Perhaps more manageable for some folks than the previous year...
2. Burgenland reds from 06 could be quite impressive.
3. The people who typically make great wine made great wine. Not everybody.
4. What impressed me most:
a) I’m not always the first to reach for Austrian riesling. I seem to like the grüner veltliner better more consistently. But, there was a collection of three 07er rieslings from Weingut Rainer Wess that was exceptional, the first being Kremstal and the others Wachau:
2007 Rainer Wess Riesling Pfaffenberg
2007 Rainer Wess Riesling Loibenberg
2007 Rainer Wess Riesling Achleiten

This is the fifth vintage from Rainer, and the Achleiten is new for 07—very articulate, and resplendently mineral.
b) 1999 Nußberg Gemischter Satz from Fritz Wieninger.
this from the finest vineyard in Vienna, bottled by the
primus unter pares of Viennese Winzer... FW’s patch of Nußberg is planted to some eight or nine varieties—which are all harvested together. This way the early-ripeners provided the oomph and the latelovelies bring the pizazz. This bottle was bright and vivacious, with just a hint of Firne. I remarked to Fritz that 1999 had in fact been for him a fine vintage. Danube had, in fact, just got done guzzling the last few cases of his ’99er Blauburgunder, apparently not caring that Pierre Rovani had blessed it with some 73 points upon release... Fritz’s 2006 Gemischter Satz Rosengartl was nothing short of spectacular.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

James - Missed you at VieVinum, but absolutely agree: The Wieninger Gemischter Satz Rosengartl was even better than the regular Nussberg Alte Reben, which was in itself pretty spectacular. I wonder if you tried Martin Arndorfer's "1958 Terraces" Gemischter Satz...?

james oliver wright said...

no, I did not try the Arndorfer—sorry—and is it a true Gemischter Satz, or is it a cuvée?

and yes, sorry I missed you...