At a recent wine tasting with our American Wine Society group, the focus was on Austrian wines. Given that Austria is known for purity of fruit and varietal expression, I was pleased and not surprised to see so many of our subjects under screwcap.
However, I was very surprised at the difficulty we encountered in getting some of these wines opened. Not of the Stelvin closure with which I am familiar, these bottles had a different screw cap – one which proved to be quite stubborn. Despite numerous failed attempts at trying to simply twist the cap, we were forced to employ more extreme methods. More specifically, our host began to wield various wrenches from his vast tool collection, with each subsequent bottle meeting a larger wrench than the previous one. After much struggle, we were rewarded with the contents of said bottles, which were quite nice.
One of the bottles, Umathum 2005 Pinot Noir, sported a glass closure, of which I had heard but never seen until then. It was very elegant in appearance (at least compared to a screw cap or synthetic cork, not in comparison with a tuxedo). Given the expense necessary to use such a closure, it made sense when we were informed that this wine cost $60.00 – the most expensive one of the evening.
After sippling, slurping and spitting our way through 8 wines, we came to dessert, which is a particular strength of Austria both in baked goods (think Strudel, Sacher Torte and Linzertorte) as well as in wines. Our host picked up the Beerenauslese and upon further examination jumped up and down within glee once he discovered that it was bottled under cork.
The wines tasted:
Fred Loimer, NV Gruner Veltliner, Weinland, $15.99 (1L)
Domane Wachau, Federspiel “Terrassen”, 2006 Riesling, Wachau, $15.99
Domane Wachau, Federspiel “Terrassen,” 2007 Gruner Veltliner, Wachau, $15.99
Fred Loimer, 2007 Rose (Zweigelt), Kamptal, $15.99
Umathum, 2005 Pinot Noir, Burgenland, $60.00
Zantho, 2006 St. Laurent, Burgenland, $14.99
Heinrich, 2006 Red (Blaufrankisch, Zweigelt and St. Laurent), Burgenland, $16.99
Heinrich, 2005 Blaufrankisch, Burgenland, $23.99
Kracher, 2003 Beerenauslese Zweigelt, Burgenland, $?