David Bowler Austrian Wine Tasting

Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend a tasting of wines from Vienna hosted by David Bowler and Darcy and Huber Selections.

The wine tasting featured a sampling of wines from producers Weingut Martinshof, Weingut Edlmoser, Weingut Zahel, Weinbau H.P. Goebel, Weingut Christ, Weingut Cobenzel, Weingut Hajszan, Weingut Mayer am Pfarrplatz, Weingut Rotes Haus and Jutta Ambrositsch.

The youngest winemaker of the Zahel winery, Alexander Scoff, nephew of the wineries head winemaker, Richard Zahel, and marketing manager Wolfgang Krininger were there to talk with attendees about the Zahel wines which was a real treat.

As I become more familiar with Austrian wines, it is interesting to see the stylistics variation between regions. Vienna's specialty is a field blend called Gemischter Satz which can contain several white grapes under no specific regulation.

The Zahel winery had a particularly interesting sparkling Gemischter Satz which was a blend of Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay - the only sparkling Gemischter Satz in production. Another wine of note from the Zahel table was the Nussberg Gemischter Satz Grand Reserve 2007 which is made up of 9 varietals and changes from year to year. There was a slight hint of botrytis in the nose along with intense integrated white fruits, definitely a great wine to pair with food.

Another table that stoof out was the Weingut Rotes Haus. Though they did not have a winery representative present, they did have my favorite white grape: Traminer (Gewurztraminer in other parts of the world) and they had it in two forms! One in a dry style and one in a dessert wine style. Both were quite elegant the Traminer 2008 was dry filled with elderflower aroma with light peach undertones. The Traminer Edellage 2005 is the dessert wine and was filled with the same nose but with a slight honeyed characteristic, but followed with enough acidity to balance out the sweet flavor.

Overall a great showing.

(pictures to come)