Austria's Answer To Summer: Gruner Veltliner

Austria is another country known for cool, refreshing whites. From Gruner Veltliner to Riesling, the whites are renowned for bracing acidity, fresh flavors, and food-friendly natures. That first sentence alone should tell you I'm pretty excited about the country and wines they produce.

I was sent two samples from producer Laurenz V, both Gruner Veltiners, both under screwcap. The test was to see how these wines stacked up compared to other awesome summer whites from Alsace and Vinho Verde.

Let's quickly trace the history of this producer. Laurenz V (pronounced Laurenz Five) stands for five generations of the Laurenz Moser wine family. As of now, there are sixteen generations of history from this producer, according to my press materials. WOW. Also of note is the fact that Laurenz V. only produces Gruner Veltliner.

2010 Laurenz V. Charming Gruner Veltliner Kamptal: Gorgeous nose of orchard fruit, limestone, and lemon juice. Jazzy acid across the palate with flavors of citrus and stone fruit exploding all over the place. Very complex and layered, with minerality coming through across the finish, drying everything out and readying your palate for the next sip. Highly recommended. $29.99 SRP. 13.0% abv.

2011 Laurenz und Sophie Singing Gruner Veltliner: Smokey flint and citrus open, with a ripe, sweet pear/apple aroma taking over. Similarly fruity and friendly on the palate, with ample ripeness yet less acidity than the Charming. This is perhaps less complex but in terms of sheer enjoyment and hedonistic goodness, maybe a better wine. Highly recommended. $15.99 SRP. 12.0% abv.







Hard to deny that these are two outstanding wines. The layers and complexity of the Charming bottling are impressive and surprising to me. On the other hand, the Singing is so fun and inviting, it may need the Charming name! I was impressed with the quality of these wines, and while $29.99 isn't cheap, a quick wine-searcher.com query showed prices between $17.99 and $25.99.

Go Austria!! A worthy challenge to Alsace and Vinho Verde, and further proof that cool, crisp whites are the perfect summer wines.

Thanks to Folio for sending the samples!

Beau Carufel

Taking Some Mystery Out Of Dessert Wines:Part 2

Here's the second post in my dessert-wine blog featurette. In the first post, I explained what my friends and I were tasting as well as went over the dessert wines themselves. Here, you'll find the tasting notes and suggested food pairings. I've included the suggested retail price as well as bottle size so you can make your own comparisons. Let's get to the wines!

The dessert wine lineup, sans Sauterenes

It's a rough life being a wine blogger

While you are gazing at those two pictures, I'm feverishly trying to arrange this next blog entry the right way. In the previous page, I had listed the dessert wines that Keith, Bill, and myself tasted on April 23rd. Now I get to talk about them as well as suggest pairings should you decide to seek them out.

1. 2009 Kracher Cuvee Auslese - Alluring nose featuring river stone, nectarine, and stone fruit. Everything was so light but also complex, I kept smelling the glass just to get more aromas. When tasted, I found a light, sweetly acidic wine with orange pith, nectarine, dried apricot all bound by a pleasing acidity that kept each fruit flavor restrained. This contributed to the balanced, palate friendly nature of the wine. An absolute gem of a dessert wine that paired extremely well with the panna cotta, as well as sugar cookies. A-. $13-$18. 375 ml.

2. 2009 Kracher Cuvee Eiswein - This is a dollop of sweet peach juice and fresh cream! Beautiful aromas of fresh apricot and a touch of tropical fruit, a nice touch of minerality giving context to the fruits. Utterly divine on the palate, with fleshy peach backing a burst of mango and more of those delicious apricots. The mouthfeel was so ripe and rich that it felt almost creamy. We all loved this wine with the fruit tarte and also the wonderful Brazilian Mousse de Maracuja. A-. $32-38. 375 ml.

3. 2009 Kracher Beerenauslese Zweigelt - Shimmered like a glass full of rubies in the sunlight, I was enthralled by the color. Aromatically complex with notes of candied flower petals, wild strawberries and some wet rock thrown in. Surprisingly light with the nearly perfect backing of acidity against some awesome flavors like cherry and candied plums. There was even something like baking spices on the finish, which certainly kept me guessing. Simply stunning for me. I think this paired amazingly well with the chocolates from Honest Chocolates, as well as the tarte Bill brought.  B+ . $24. 375 ml.

4. 2008 Bodegas Ochoca Moscatel - Made from small berry muscat vines, this was my first time tasting a dessert wine from Navarra, Spain. The bouquet was explosive, like a sweet tropical fruit salad drizzled in white grape juice. A touch of acidity balanced the notes of passion fruit, pineapple, and mango. At first, it was somewhat difficult to wrap my head around what I smelled. The Ochoca moscatel was that good! I tasted golden apples, peaches, tropical fruit and more of the white grape juice all seamlessly blending together. My favorite wine of the night. Another stellar pairing with the chocolates and also the fruit tarte. A (95 points). $20. STRONG BUY. 375 ml.

5. 2003 Sigalas Vinsanto Santorini VQPRD -  The first vinsanto I had tasted in a while, blew my socks off. Insane smells of caramelized sugar and dried figs, even a hint of toasted nuts. At once interesting and alluring, I could put away a bottle of this myself, with no problem. The sweet nutty flavor carried through the palate, mixing with figs and a hint of burnt sugar. Pleasing acidity was there throughout, so the Sigalas vinsanto avoided getting into the saccharine-sweet territory that had me worried when I conceived the tasting earlier this year. Excellent, spicy finish and I was content to sip it on it's own, not needing any desserts. A-. $50. 500 ml.

6. 2009 Seven of Hearts Coupe's Cuvee - Sent down to me after the other dessert wines had arrived, this was the first time I had ever tried pinot noir made into a dessert wine. The aromatics were fascinating, with an earthy, almost barnyard aroma (in a good way!), notes of sweet cherry and even what I thought was a touch of menthol on the back end. When I tasted the Coupe's Cuvee I found a great flavor of cedar and red cherry along with great spices and a tangy acidity. The complexity surprised me, in the best of ways. Along with the complex flavors and aromas was the awesome color, I thought it looked like an electrified ruby sitting my glass. Paired with the Honest Chocolates, it shined. The flavors all melded together to create a sensational taste. B+ $21. BUY. 375ml.

7. 2003 Chateau Rieussec Sauterenes - 2003 was apparently a good year for Sauterenes, and the Chateau Rieussec is aging beautifully. Smells like botrytis laden grapes, hints of pine with a bit of acidic astringency. I tasted sweet cream, apricots, beautiful hints of caramel and hard candy almost like a Werthers. The way it effortlessly glides around in your mouth reminds you why Sauterenes are so highly prized. I loved the pairing with the panna cotta and on its own, needing no accompaniment save for a beautiful sunset. B+. $39. 375ml.

We got into Bill's tarte, hard.

Wrapping up a post like this is not easy for me, because I don't know if words can express my gratitude to those who participated. This was the first time I reached out en masse (so to speak) to try to put together a series of blog posts framed around one type of wine. In my opinion it worked out perfectly and I'd like to thank Catharine Seda, Constance Chamberlain, Byron and Dana Dooley, Keith, and Bill. They readily agreed to ship me samples of wine, bring tasty desserts, and reminded me to get my butt in gear with these posts. A thousand thank-you's, I am deeply appreciative of the support. Until next time!

Panna Cotta, so good!!

This tasting was a mix of wines sent as media samples and donations from a private cellar.

Beau Carufel

Taking Some Mystery Out of Dessert Wines

Dessert wines can make even an experienced wine connoisseur nervous. While most people know of dessert wines, there's something of an air of mystery to that category. Some of that air might be cultivated, as way of elevating this class of wine above others *coughCHAMPAGNEcough* but for the most part, dessert wines are a non-threatening, delicious, fun way to cap off a memorable meal. In February I had the brilliant idea to create a couple of blog posts detailing my experiences with dessert wines and that in turn would hopefully spur some dialogue and exploration on your end.

I reached out to some contacts in the wine industry and soon had a wonderful assembly of dessert wines to taste and write about.I was lucky enough to have samples from Austria, Greece, Spain, and Oregon sent to me for this tasting. A special thanks goes out to the Brand Action Team, Balzac Communications, and Seven of Hearts winery for generously sending me some amazing wines.

The next step was to figure out some food combinations, in an effort to make this more of a "real world" kind of test. Since I had invited my buddies Keith and Bill to participate, I figured why not put them to work procuring some tasty, sugar-laden goodies for us? They each contributed various pastries, chocolate bread, and a special Brazilian Mousse de Maracujá dessert while I contributed some panna cotta, one of my all time favorite desserts (and I brought the wines). Our plan was to try the wines with various desserts, both to mimic more casual dishes and also to throw desserts into the mix that you may have at an upscale restaurant.

On the next page (see the link at the bottom of this one) I'll go more into detail with tasting notes about each wine as well as the dessert pairings that I found to be very interesting and fun.

If you're with me so far, good. Some of you might be wondering what exactly a "dessert wine" is. Definitions vary around the world, as do names. The Aussies even call them "stickies", how quintessentially Australian! At their heart though, the vast majority of "dessert wine" is sweet in nature. This is often due to elevated sugar levels left over after primary fermentation has been completed, called "residual sugar". Two of the main reasons for those elevated sugar levels come from the way the grapes are grown and harvested.

In wines from Sauterenes and Barsac in Bordeaux, the sauvignon blanc and semillion grapes are allowed to succumb to "Noble Rot" caused by the botrytis bacterium. This rot concentrates the sugars in the grape by drying it, allowing for a sweeter wine to be made. Alternately, a method practiced in Canada, New Zealand, and Austria (among other places) produces what's called "ice wine" where the grapes are allowed to freeze on the vine, thereby concentrating their sugars so that when pressed, the resulting juice is lower in water and higher in sugar. There is no hard and fast rule about what method you have to use to produce sweet wines though.

During the tasting, we had wine from Sauternes as well as an ice wine (eiswein) from Austria. There were also several others; a muscatel from Navarra, an Auslese made from chardonnay and welschriesling (not regular riesling), a vin santo from Santorini, and a Beerenauslese made from the zweigelt grape. Obviously we were trying totally new varietals in the form of dessert wines, an awesome way to get acquainted with them.

My friends at Seven of Hearts in Oregon contributed a bottle of their dessert port, made from pinot noir grapes grown in a couple of vineyards in the Willamette Valley. Pinot noir, you ask? I asked too, and at the very least this is a fun experiment with the varietal. The Coupe's Cuvee was made in the traditional style, with some brandy being added at a certain point to arrest the fermentation and preserve some residual sugar. That's also how Port is made, one of my all-time favorite drinks!

Keith and Bill getting dessertified

Below is the list of dessert wines we tasted on April 23rd:

1. 2009 Kracher Cuvee Auslese
2. 2009 Kracher Cuvee Eiswein
3. 2009 Kracher Beerenauslese Zweigelt
4. 2008 Bodegas Ochoca Moscatel
5. 2003 Sigalas Vinsanto
6. 2009 Seven of Hearts Coupe's Cuvee
7. 2003 Chateau Rieussec Sauterenes

Mousse de Maracuja

Click Here To Go To Part Two

Beau Carufel

Gruner Veltliner and Szechuan Beef with Broccoli, Try Again!

On the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year I was talking to a friend of mine when the subject of Asian food and wine pairings came up. While common knowledge tells us that pairing a riesling or even gewurtraminer with spicy dishes such as Thai cuisine can work, what about using a gruner veltliner?

Fast forward a few days when lo and behold, my doorstep has a box containing some wine, one of which happens to be a gruner veltliner from the Osterreich region of Austria. Per my usual routine, this gruner rested for a little while before I opened it to taste and share with you. Frequent readers may recall my fondness for this varietal, as highlighted in a couple of previous posts. Please feel free to click here and here to see them.

2009 Weingut Christ Gruner Veltliner Bruch

As I marveled at the color, a delicate greenish straw color, I figured the pairing of Spicy Szechuan Beef and Broccoli along with lime rice might utterly destroy the gruner. Why did I capitalize that entree title? Well, that's the name on the bag that came from my local Trader Joe's.

Time for a few whiffs of the 2009 Weingut Christ, where fragrant lime juice and lemongrass seem to appear first. Upon another sniff, tart green apple and wet rock bounce around in my nostrils. The barest hint of spice and fresh lychee are present too. Hopefully it's apparent that I am loving the complexity of the nose so far.

Now I get to taste the wine, my favorite part! Right away I get traditional gruner flavors: citrus, fresh herb, wet rock and green apples. Overall I think the nose is more complex than the taste, but here's the rub. Two things ran though my head, first that the wine was too cold to be tasting and second, that the wine hadn't settled enough after being shipped.

Here's the situation: while I was tasting the gruner, I couldn't get enough life, vivacity, crispness or whatever word you use to describe an acidic white that should have some "pop". The flavors seemed muted and dissipated far too quickly for my liking. Since I'm reasonably certain of my method for evaluating white wines, I suspect that I may not have allowed the 2009 Weingut Christ to rest long enough..But that seems a bit far-fetched too. Perhaps my palate was just having a bit of an off day.

I wrote these tasting notes quickly though, before I cooked up the Szechaun beef and broccoli. The spices in that dish unfortunately blew the gruner out of the water. About the only thing that the gruner brought to the table was enough acidity to partially was my palate clean of the sweet/sour flavors in the food. Now that I'm reflecting a bit, I realize that there simply wasn't the opposite flavor of sour present, which for our purposes is sweet. That's why a wine with a bit more residual sugar would have fared better.

As of now, at about 6:30pm, I'm going to put this stuff away and seal it with my vacu-vin till tomorrow. Don't worry, I will put the wine back in the fridge and before I re-taste, it'll be allowed about 30 minutes to gently come up a few degrees.

Picking up where I left off last night, I once again poured a glass of the 2009 Weingut Christ Gruner Veltliner and allowed it to slowly warm up a bit. For the first time since I started writing about wine, a taste and review entry is spanning two days. Comparing my notes from last night to what I am experiencing tonight, the bouquet is close though I would suggest that the lychee that was faint last night has come on strong though, overtaking the subtle spices and nearly drowning them out.

Comparing the mouth-feel and flavors of last night to what I taste tonight reveals some changes. The beautiful acidity is still present, I love how it builds a wall in my mouth while slowly moving backwards across my tongue and brushing my cheeks. Here I get much more spice than before, but still lovely green apple and herbal notes. Hints of residual sugar peek out through a fleshier mid-palate than before. Imagine the pulp of a lychee fruit mixed with a spritz of pineapple juice. The finish tends towards abruptness, but given the high acidity, we can't be too surprised by that.

Day two brought about a better wine than day one, no question in my mind. Had you asked for a rating after yesterday, I'd have given this wine a C and suggested you pass on it. Tonight though, the wine shows much more character and varietal honesty. I marked it up a letter grade, to a B- and encourage you to BUY a bottle. I searched the internet and found a lot of places selling this for about $12, which isn't bad at all. It does lack a bit of complexity compared to more expensive gruner veltliner but that nose is something from a more expesnive bottle. 12.5% alcohol also earns a positive nod. Check out the 2009 Weingut Christ Gruner Veltliner Bruch and see what you think.

This was provided as a media sample.

Beau Carufel

What is a Spicy Gruner Veltliner? 2008 Graf Hardegg vom Schloss!

A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend of mine who happens to be a Gruner Veltiner fan, and that's putting it lightly. She's in the wine industry and has sent me some samples before, notably the Grooner and Zvy-gelt wines I reviewed. Our conversation revolved around the subject of a "spicy" Gruner and what that would be like. She, having tasted much more Austrian wine than I probably ever will, was very enthusiastic about Gruner Veltliner produced in this style. Right before Thanksgiving, a sample found it's way (via FedEx) to my wine fridge and a few week later, I was impatient enough to open this Graf Hardegg 2008 vom Schloss over a meal of spicy orange chicken and rice.

First, a bit of background by way of my impersonation of a wine PR person: "This 100% Gruner Veltliner was hand harvested in the fall of 2008, then spent 25 days fermenting in 75% stainless steel and 25% new oak barrels. After bottling in April 2009, the vom Schloss spent some time settling in the bottle before it was unleashed on the Gruner-loving world"

That's all in good fun of course, but now you do have some (relevant?) information about what I tasted. Remember that this is an example of a "spicy" Gruner, as per my Austrian-wine-loving-also-in-the-industry-friend. If you're still reading this blog, the good stuff starts right now.

After being removed from my 54 degree (but of course!) wine fridge and being poured into a glass (did you think I'd use a straw?) I was about to see what the fuss is about. That fuss turned out to be pretty damn legitimate, at least in this blogger's opinion.

If Chanel produced a perfume with peach notes and floral aromas, subtle oak and a bit of a wet-stone smell, that's what the 2008 Graf Hardegg vom Schloss would smell like. What a nose! Absolutely beautiful, the aromas caught my attention right away. I hit on the white peach and wet-stone immediately, because those two scents don't necessarily go together. In this case though, there was no clash or discord, just harmony.

As I sipped the wine, that spicy sensation was present, I liken it to a burst of fresh green jalapeno pepper, and lime juice. The acidity was tempered by the added fleshy mid-palate that oak barrels can introduce, a very, very nice touch. The vom Schloss coats your palate while at the same time teasing the edges of your tongue with fresh peach, minerals and bright citrus. Clean, compact, and effortless finish, I was left waiting for the next sip.

Impressive wine, considering the SRP of $20, just another example of why Austrian wines deliver a quality to price ratio that is among the best out there. I was able to find the 2008 Graf Hardegg vom Schloss for as low as $12 on the internet, do your research! One of the rare times I've awarded and A- to a wine and a STRONG BUY recommendation. Do yourself a favor and pick up a bottle or two, even in the winter weather a lot of you are experiencing, this is a delicious sipper to keep around the house.

As for the pairing, a success. The citrus elements of the chicken played off against the spice and white peach flavors in the wine, while the mid palate body of the gruner helped restrain some of the spicy flavors in the dish. Unfortunately I was out of wine by the time dessert came around, because I really wanted to taste it with the mango mochi I had. Next time!

This wine was a sample sent for review purposes.


Beau Carufel