Austrian Wine Fact of the Day: Kremstal

Today's Austrian wine fact is Kremstal, particularly noted for Gruner Veltliner and Riesling and full bodied reds. The Kremstal's terroir is "soft loess" (half stone, half soil) of clay and limestone as the region spans a significant portion of the Danube.

The region is located in between Kamptal and the Wachau. Noted producers are: Salomon-Undhof (Michael Skurnik Wines), Weingut Malat (Winemonger), Weingut Martin Nigl (Michael Skurnik Wines), the Weingut Stadt Krems (Emerald Wines of Winebow) and the biggest producer, Weinkellier Lenz Moser (Folio Fine Wine Partners)

You can find many or all of these great wines at local shops near you!

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.

Austrian Samples & Swing

On Thursday, May 13th my boss Steve Raye and I headed back to New York for the "Austrian Samples & Swing" party at the Austrian Consulate General on East 69th street in Manhattan. Prior to the event we needed to make a stop at MHW, Ltd. in Manhasset, NY. MHW, Ltd. is an importer and distributor of wine, beer, and spirits. We were there picking up several cases of Oval Vodka, which is a luxury vodka from Austria. Since we had a bit of time to spare before our pick-up we stopped in at Young's Fine Wines & Spirits, which was just down the street.

We introduced ourselves to two staff members, Robbie Sandor and Brad Haskel, of this gigantic, yet personal wine shop. Robbie is an incredibly nice, older gentleman who once worked on his Grandfather's vineyard in his native Hungary. Later, he worked in the international airline industry, and traveled to many different wine regions.

Brad is a certified Sommelier and extremely knowledgeable about wine. He conducts wine tastings and teaches wine education classes at the store. You can read more about his wine consulting business here.

Here I am looking through their impressive selection of Austrian wines.



















Here are Brad (on the left) and Robbie. They were both great hosts and tour guides.














And here's a cool shot of the Austrian wines available for purchase. It's the largest collection I've seen in a retail store to date.



















Later we drove into Manhattan for the "Austrian Samples & Swing" event, arriving at about 6 o'clock. Here I am with my acquaintance Laura, who is half-German and half-Argentinian. She is an aspiring wine maker. I met Laura about a month ago at the Darcy & Huber portfolio wine tasting. She's super nice and is doing masterful job at learning the English language. As an aside, why are non-Americans usually so hip looking?














The event had a huge attendance, as you can see below. There were wine critics, authors, journalists, restauranteurs, and more in tow.














Below is the view from the Winemonger Imports table. The Winemonger site has a blog and you can purchase their wines, they specialize in Austrian wines, from the site. I tasted their Manfred Weiss, Grüner Veltliner Eiswein 'Fahrenheit 19' 2005. Eiswein means "ice wine," which is a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. The Manfred was sweet and refreshing.














And below is the view from the Michael Skurnik Wines table. Pouring the wine is their brand manager Jeremy Schwartz. There I tried my first Austrian rosé, Hofer's 2008 Zweigelt Rosé. I'd like to buy this wine to share with others as soon as possible. It's a lovely, summer wine.














The other wine importers at the event were Darcy & Huber Selections, Monika Caha Selections, Inc., Prescott Wines, Inc., and Vin Divino, Ltd. Monika Caha Selections were just mentioned in a Slate article about wine importers you can count on. Read more about it here. At Vin Divino's table I was able to try Kracher's 2007 Pinot Gris Illmitz, which was quite good, but my heart is still stuck on one day tasting a Kracher dessert wine. I'll schedule that during my trip to Austria this June!

Overall, it was an exciting day. The Austrian Trade Commission and the Austrian Wine Marketing Board produced an excellent event. Austrian wine, delicious Austrian hors d'oeuvres, and snappy Jazz music by the Hayes Kavanagh Jazz Sextett. We had a fine time.