Turkish Wines

Turkish wines...? Did anyone really know such a thing existed? Yes, the country of Turkey is in close proximity to Greece, but Turkey just isn't a country you'd expect wine to come from. Neither the Professional Wine Atlas by Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson nor the WSET Advanced course study book have any information about the varietals, the terroir, the history... NOTHING.

I had the opportunity to attend the US Drinks Conference on Wednesday, Oct. 14th (more about that later) where I met several international wine, spirits and beer producers looking to enter the US market. As you may of guessed, one of the wine producers there was from Turkey, representing Vinkara wines and guess what, they brought samples! One white wine, a 2008 Vinkara Doruk Narince and one red, a 2008 Vinkara Doruk Kalecik Karasi (try saying those ten times fast!)

Unfortunately the white was less than chilled by the time it made it into my tasting glass yesterday afternoon, but the nose was still full of tropical fruits, ripe bananas and citrus. The color was a clean, very pale lemon. On the palate I tasted a great deal if minerality with tropical fruits and citrus, the acid was incredibly high leaving my mouth salivating for many minutes after I'd swallowed the delicious elixir.

Though lighter in body, the flavour profile of the Narince grape seems to mirror that of a young, unoaked chardonnay.

Update: 12:10pm - I have now tasted the white (chilled) and the red. Both outstanding, pleasantly surprised by what I found. The warm climate of Turkey has made both of these wines incredibly light in body but has not sacrificed the flavor. I can imagine sipping these while eating hummus on a hot dessert day. The red is full of cherries in the front of the mouth with incredible acid, light tannin. Very pale garnet coloring despite it's young age, similar to that of a Pinot Noir.
The Narince is 100% better when chilled. Tropical, sweet fruits meet the nose and on the palate continue with a distinct taste of Guava enhancing the image of laying in the sipping on this delicate wine.


**photos courtesy of Vinkara.com

Austrian Food & Wine Pairings

Austrian wines have been getting quite a lot of attention lately in the way of food pairings. A large push has been set forward by the AWMB for Asian inspired cuisine. Publications like the Chicago Tribune have highlighted this fact stating, "The crisp stylings of Austrian wines do make them useful for the growing roster of fiery Asian foods we enjoy."


But Asian fusion is not the only pairing suggestion.

The New Jersey Monthly posted an article on Oct. 7th highlighting the fact they paired Fried Green Tomatoes with Gruner Veltliner. Who would have thought?


The Herald Tribune out of Sarasota, FL suggested pairing Gruner Veltliner with Shrimp Mousse with Dill Pistachio Pesto for your holiday parties.



The Washington Post suggested pairing Anton Bauer 2008 with a dinner of Pork and Plums over spaetzle.










Food and Wine posted an article about pairing Gruner Veltliner with Zucchini Linguine with Herbs. Sounds delicious!


Purple Liquid: a wine and food diary blog recommended pairing Gruner Veltliner with Redwood Hill Goat Cheese.






Last month Dr. Vino requested suggestions for a wine to pair with cucumber soup. Austrian wines were in high suggestion.

Gruner Veltliner has also been widely suggested for pairings with salads and other vegetables that can be overpowered by some other white grapes. (That's great news for me! I love salad!)

Now that I am have decided a delicious pairing of sushi and Gruner will be on tonight's dinner menu, I leave you to go experiment with your own foods!

For even more pairing suggestions check out the AWMB website.

Greetings

Hello all. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Constance Chamberlain and I have just joined The Brand Action Team here in Avon, CT. You may have seen my own blog: http://wineconnoisseur.blogspot.com or noticed me on Twitter as VinoCC in the past. I have a deep passion for wine and am excited to begin my work as the new Social Media Marketing Manager for the Austrian Wine Marketing Board.

I'm still familiarizing myself with the grapes, but I've had Gruner in my past on more than one occasion, and let me tell you -- I LOVE it.

We've also got some new projects in the works so stay tuned to find out all the exciting things that are coming up :).

Gerhard Kracher Named “Sweet Winemaker of the Year”

Hello!


To start with here is a piece of good news....

A true triumph for Gerhard Kracher at this year´s International Wine Challenge in London: the 28-year-old winemaker from Illmitz, Austria, captured the wine world´s most coveted sweet wine trophy when he was named “Sweet Winemaker of the Year”.

The award. presented to Kracher at the International Wine Challenge Awards Dinner at London´s Grosvenor Hotel on Wednesday, 2 September, reflects the young winemaker´s continuation on the successful path begun by his father, the late sweet wine legend, Alois Kracher, who himself was awarded the “Sweet Winemaker of the Year” title seven times, with the last given posthumously in 2008.

“This truly is a wonderful achievement, and not just for me, but for the entire team,” said the jubilant Gerhard Kracher. “It is great that all of our hard work has been recognized with such an honour.”

The International Wine Challenge in London is one of the most important annual events of the international wine and gourmet world. Its high point is the International Wine Challenge Awards Dinner, at which all of the competition winners are announced. Competition at the IWC is tough: every year, nearly 1000 wineries submit more than 9500 wines for judging – making it even more significant that Gerhard Kracher received not only the most important of the IWC awards, but that all of the Kracher wines entered into the competition were awarded with a medal.

Goodbye and Hello

Dear Reader,

My tenure here at Petite Terroir and Brand Action Team is coming to an end as of Friday, Aug. 28th. I am moving on to pursue a long-time education goal. It's been a real pleasure working at Brand Action Team and my co-workers here, learning so much about wine, traveling to noted wine regions, meeting interesting people, and interacting with the wine blogosphere.

Petite Terroir will continue under the reins of my very capable Brand Action Team colleague.

Thank you very much for stopping by and I wish you all well.

Cheers!

Laurie

2009 Wine Bloggers' Conference

I’m in San Francisco, California on an Airport Shuttle Express en route to Santa Rosa, CA, a.k.a. Napa and Sonoma Counties, to attend the 2009 Wine Bloggers’ Conference, scheduled for July 24-26, 2009.

I’m here as a representative for the company I work for, Brand Action Team, and as a newbie wine blogger for my blog Petite Terroir. This is the second annual WBC and over 250 people are participating, which represents a commendable 50% increase over last year's conference.

The 2009 WBC conference is partnering with Napa Valley Vintners, who are providing attendees with a full day in Napa Valley on Saturday. There are also three keynote speakers this year and two after-hours parties each night sponsored by the Russian River Valley Winegrowers and ViniPortugal.

The local hosts of the conference are Sonoma Vintners, Sonoma Winegrape Commission, Sonoma Tourism and Napa Valley Vintners. Thanks to all the hosts, sponsors, and organizers for making this conference feasible.

Unfortunately due to a long delay at Bradley Airport in Windsor Locks, CT on Friday morning I arrived an hour late at Washington-Dulles Airport and missed my connecting flight to San Francisco International Airport. My Connecticut flight was scheduled to leave at 6 am, but because of a problem with the airplane’s computers, it did not depart until 7:15 am. Needless to say I and many others missed connecting flights to our respective destinations. The scene at the United Airways customer service desk was not pretty.

United Airways put me on a 9:30 am flight to Los Angeles, which landed at 11:15 am and from there I took a 1:10 pm flight to San Francisco. We got in around 2:30 pm. Once in San Francisco I boarded an Airport Express Shuttle for a two-hour drive to Santa Rosa, which is where I’m writing from now.

In Santa Rosa I have to take a cab from a local Day’s Inn to the Flamingo Hotel and Resort, which is where I am staying and where the conference is being held, because this shuttle bus does not go to the Flamingo. I should check into the hotel by 6: 00 pm or so. Whew!

Since I’m arriving late to the conference I’m missing many of the day’s events, which included a lunch with Sonoma Vintners & Sonoma Winegrape Commission, a Welcome and Bloggers Conference Overview, Live Wine Blogging, the 2009 American Wine Blog Awards, and a grand tasting of Sonoma Wines.

I will however arrive fashionably late for a dinner with Sonoma County Tourism and Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers, which features a keynote address on Blogging: Past, Present, & Future by Chris Alden of Six Apart. I may also be able to catch the end of the grand tasting. Following dinner there is an after-hours party from 9 - 11 pm hosted by Russian River Valley Winegrowers.

So while I am disappointed to miss many of Friday’s events I am grateful to at least make the first night’s dinner and after-hours party, and arrive here safely and well.

I’m looking forward to meeting in person wine bloggers whose blogs I read regularly, like Joe Roberts of 1 Wine Dude and Jeff Lefevre of The Good Grape. This conference should be an educational and fun event, which I’ll be spending with some of the blog world's most noted wine bloggers.

Hey, we just drove over the Golden Gate Bridge! Awesome.

See you at the 2009 Wine Bloggers' Conference. More details to come so please check back.

Cheers!

Day 4: Austrian Wine Summit 2009

Our fabulous fourth day in Austria began with a sparkling wine reception at and a short visit to the Loisium Wine Museum, located at the start of the Kamptal Valley in the village of Langenlois, which is Lower Austria's largest wine growing community. The museum is amazing and provides visitors with highly unique ways to explore the world of wine. We enjoyed an eye-popping tour of the cellar, which displayed the past histories, present days, and future plans of Lower Austrian viniculture. It was a surprising departure from a traditional museum experience and more on the wavelength of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

The sparkling wine we drank during the reception was a Sauvignon Blanc from the family-run Weingut Steininger, also of Langenlois. The strength of this winery is Grüner Veltliner, but they are also well know for their tasty sparkling wines, which are produced according to the traditional bottle fermenting method.

The visually-dazzling Loisium Wine Museum


Another view of the superbly-designed Loisium Wine Museum


After our museum visit we took a trip to the winery Domäne Wachau located in Dürnstein in the heart of the Wachau Valley. It is the biggest winery in the Wachau, an area where wine has been cultivated for centures. The Wachau has also been named a World Cultural Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Once at the winery we enjoyed a seminar and wine tasting entitled "Great Single Vineyards of the Wachau," presented by the winery's Managing Director, Roman Horvath. I especially enjoyed the sweet-tasting 2007 Grüner Veltliner Smaragd by Weingut F.X. Pichler, which per Roman sold-out immediately, and the green-apple-esque 2008 Riesling by Weingut Tegernseerhof.

In the Wachau, the wine categories of Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd are used respectively for light, medium and full-bodied wines with natural alcohol.

I'm getting ready to taste a white wine


That's a bouquet of Steinfeder in bloom, with Roman Horvath in the background


After the seminar we split into two groups and I went with the group headed for a short walk through the single vineyard Singerriedel, which provided us with quite likely the best views of the entire trip. This vineyard is located on the steep side of a mountain. I imagine working in that environment is challenging, but the rewards are obviously great in terms of views and of course, the end-product of a good wine.

Vineyard views


Smiling at Austria's natural beauty as the Danube flows by quietly


After the vineyard walk we took a charming and picturesque boat ride along the Danube, from Spitz to Dürnstein. Along the way we tasted Federspiel wines from Weingut Sigl, Weingut Lagler, Weingut Knoll, and Weingut Jäger.

My favorite wine on the ride was the 2008 Riesling Loibenberg Federspiel by Weingut Knoll. It is light and delicious, with a cotton, velvet feel; a very fine, straight white wine.

One of the pretty views from the Danube


The wines tasted during the trip


After the boat ride many of us thought the trip couldn't get any better, but we were pleasantly proven wrong. We stopped for lunch at the Restaurant Jamek, of the Weingut Jamek, which is located in Joching. Lunch featured more delightful wines from the Wachau, with my number one pick being Weingut Jamek's own 2008 Gelber Muskateller Federspiel. Peaches, roses, images of elegant ladies decorated in lace. I love this wine and I love this grape! My table even tried to get our server to leave the bottle with us!

Wines tasted at Restaurant Jamek


Enjoying our lunch at Restaurant Jamek


Immediately after lunch, we took a group picture. I traveled with a great group of people.


After lunch we boarded the buses for our trip back to where it all began, Vienna. After checking into the Hotel Falkensteiner Palace we had about an hour to rest, then prepare and primp for the "Party in the Park - Baroque Meets Jazz" at the Schönbrunn Palace's Gloriette, which is a monument on the grounds of the palace. We arrived around 7 pm and left when the clock struck midnight.

The party featured food by Chef Karl Malafa, wines from the Danube regions & Burgenland, classic strings by "Wiener Melange Quartet" and live Jazz with Jazzklusiv. My personal highlights of the evening including dancing a Viennese Waltz in Vienna, the overall beauty and magnificance of the grounds, and singing Beatles songs with Willi Klinger of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, who surprised and delighted us all by entertaining us on piano.

The Gloriette


The palace as seen from the Gloriette


Willi Klinger, Piano Man


Day 5 of the Austrian Wine Summit 2009 was for me simply a long day of travel back to my hometown in Connecticut. It took no less than one subway, one train, one plane, another train, another subway, a bus, and a car to get home. Not that I'm complaining. This trip was well worth any exhaustion incurred.

I know some in the group we able to stay later on Sunday and enjoy a "Brunch in the Sky" at the Restaurant Ellipse in Kahlenberg. The picture below leads me to believe they had a lovely time there as well.



I would like to sincerely thank the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, which includes their entire staff, the participating wineries and facilities, and all those involved in Wine Summit 2009 for a truly spectacular, fun, and educational trip. You were all the best hosts any guest could ask for. You spoiled us rotten. Thank you, again.

Cheers!