Thursday, May 7, 2009

Belated Notes on an Austrian Wine Tasting

On April 22nd, I joined my boss Steve Raye for a wine tasting at the Austrian Cultural Forum in NYC, which was produced by the wine importer Darcy & Huber Selections.

Darcy and Huber's mission is "to find exclusive, authentic wines from Austria and introduce them to the American market." They believe in "authentic," "hands-off," wine that should "taste like where it's from." (Hello, terroir!)

I counted ninety-six wines listed in my tasting notes booklet, but I only tried about forty of them. Of those my absolute, darling favorite was the 2008 Weingut Christ Gelber Muskateller. These were my quick notes: "Scent of flowers & fruit. Jasmine. Lychee. Powdery scent. Pretty." This particular wine is made by the vinter Rainer Christ of Vienna.

Other gorgeous selections were the 2004 Weingut Esterhazy Beerenauslese and the 2006 Weingut Esterhazy TrochenBeerenauslese. Both are noble, sweet dessert wines from Burgenland and taste like liquid honeysuckle.

While at the tasting, Steve and I reconnected with noted wine blogger Alice Feiring of In Vino Veritas. We originally met Alice only days before at a reading sponsored by the Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation-Emek Shalom in Simsbury, CT. Alice was at the FVJC event to talk about organic and biodynamic wines, and to read selections from her book The Battle for Wine and Love or How I Saved the World from Parkerization. Alice was great to have along for the Darcy and Huber tasting to learn from.

Many thanks to Carlo Huber and Paul Darcy for producing this event and inviting us to attend.

3 comments:

WineDInetv said...

We visited the historic Eszterhazy winery two years ago and we absolutely adored the Trockeneerenauslese cuvee. The aroma of honey, orange and apricot with lingering finish is pure celebration in a glass. Our other favorite was the Blanc de Noir Sparkling wine. We actually purchased 6 bottles and enjoyed along our Europe trip.
Burgenland produces excellent quality wines and this fall we plan to visit Eszterhazy winery again.
Judit & Corina
WineDineTV.com

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your comment. That trip sounds wonderful. I'm going to visit the Schloss Esterhazy palace when I go to Austria in June and will also tour northern Burgenland. You're great experience there is heightening my anticipation and excitement for my trip.

Anonymous said...

I really love the tasting of the wine. maybe you and I can go at night, and enjoy for one moment the real Edegra flavor in my own degustation.
Caverta Kamagra