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Austria 2005: Introduction
Looking
back to the first wine book I ever bought - Oz Clarke's sensibly titled The
Wine Book, as it happens, published some time in the late 1980's - I
struggle to find much information on Austria. The winemaking efforts of this
culturally rich European nation were condensed in this text to just a few
columns, tucked away at the back end of the book in the chapter entitled
Other Wine-Making Regions. It sits uneasily here, alongside the Soviet
Union, North Africa and Central America, as well as more likely candidates such
as Greece and Romania. Oz liked Austrian wine (I suspect he still does), as he
extolled the virtues of a good Austrian Müller-Thurgau.
Perhaps not what we look for in an Austrian wine today...
At the time this book was published, Austria was still reeling from the diethylene glycol scandal, an exposé that revealed common-or-garden antifreeze to be an important constituent of many Austrian wines. Austria spent many years out in the cold as a result, shunned and unloved, and not even the soothing words of Oz Clarke were enough to tempt the wine-buying public to go Austrian. They were, after all, far too busy discovering Australia.
Nevertheless, only the ostriches among you will fail to have noticed that Austria's fortunes have made an abrupt about-turn in the past few years. Merchants and consumers are cottoning on to the fact that Austria makes great wine, both dry and sweet, white and red. And this fact, although recognised, is poorly reflected on The Winedoctor, with just one recently published profile for Jurtschitsch Sonnhof. This is, however, about to change. This new series will see a number of new Austrian producers profiled, with plenty of tasting notes added to the site. I wish I could tell you this is the result of an exhausting trip across Austria, where I helped out with the latest vintage before whiling away my evenings chewing the cud with the winemakers and gulping down lots of free food and wine, all paid for by the Austrian Wine PR fund. Sadly, such a fantasy never occurred (but hope springs eternal - hint to any winemakers reading); the wines to be featured were largely tasted at the International Wine Fair in 2005. (10/11/05)
Austria 2005: an introduction to the wines of Austria.
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