Austrian Wines Magnum Party

As promised, here's the recap on the Austrian Wines Magnum party.

Friday night the Austrian Trade Commission and Austrian Wine Marketing Board hosted an Austrian Wines Magnum party held at the Hearth Restaurant in the East Village in New York City at 11pm. Friends of Austrian Wine and the top Sommeliers in Manhattan gathered to taste and impressive array of wines that consisted of 41+ magnums and super magnums of a variety of Austrian wines supplied by key importers: Winemonger, Frederick Wildman, Select Wines, Vin Divino, Michael Skurnik, Domaine Select, Folio Fine Wine, Winebow, Darcy & Huber Selections, Circo Vino, Blue Danube Wine and Weygandt-Metzler Wine Importing.

The room was quite crowded when we arrived. The wines were lined up on tables in ice buckets that encompassed the room; each was tagged with its respective number, origin, grape variety, name/style, vineyard and vintage. The oldest wine we could find was from 1990, a Riesling from the Wachau, Vinothek imported by Michael Skurnik wines. Quite developed, the wine was rich with honey, but with a great balance of acidity.

Next we found our way to number 28: a Gemischter Satz from the Wien region, Bisamberg Alte Reben, , 2002, imported by Darcy & Huber Selections. Darcy & Huber import a great deal of impressive Germischter Satz and this was no exception.

The reds were brought out later and placed on a single table. Blaufrankisch was the dominant variety, but we managed to try a Neusiedlersee Reserve Sankt Laurent, 2006 imported by Blue Danube that was to our liking as well.

Only two desert wines were served and they were placed toward the back of the room, theoretically to be sipped on last. However, these went faster than any other wine. A 2005 Edellage Traminer from the Wien region, imported by Darcy and Huber and 2004 Grade Cuvee TBA Chardonnay/Welschriesling imported by Vin Divino wowed the group as both portrayed deep honeyed fruit, but accompanied by enough acid to bit through the sweetness and make it feasible to return to tasting dry white wine.

Throughout the night, various Austrian dishes were served. An array of cheeses and smoked sausage, freshly cooked salmon with a variety of toppings, a whole fried pig, carved on the center table and various condiments were enjoyed by all. A few desserts and Austrian cookies were also located on the dessert table.

By 2am, most of the wine was gone and host, Willi Klinger brought up reserves from the Hearth Restaurant Wine Cellar to be enjoyed by the crowd and the party continued on. By 4:30am, we called it a night, but there was still a significant crowd socializing and talking about the impressive collection the Austrians had shown that night.