Vieux Lartigue Saint-Emilion Gran Cru 2008

This is the wine steal of the century - at least in my book!


A €30 bottle of Saint-Emilion for €15 in the Wein & Co. bargain bin: talk about sweet. Or, dry, actually. I was completely on the fence about the whole thing, until I decided, hey, this is a once-in-a-blue-moon kind of deal on my favorite type of wine! I would be a sucker not to get it, and spend the whole €30 on the bottle later, or never get it and wonder - what if?

I've been saving this one for a special occasion, and had a really rough weekend, so I figured tonight was as good a night as any to celebrate and pep myself up.

The wine is smooth, attractively deep and purple. The bouquet is a bit unusual. Upon opening the bottle, I was reminded of olive oil, tomatoes and strawberries. The flavor is more akin to black currants and blueberries. The finish is smooth and velvety.

I savored this particular bottle with a Greek salad, Pecorino cheese and a small slice of bakery bought Sachertorte. It's life's little pleasures, isn't it?

Rosé de Chevalier 2011

This delicious Bordeaux rosé was another bargain bin delight from Wein & Co. I am basically a sucker for anything with "Chevalier" in the name...perhaps it has something to do with the magnificent red wine once sampled in Montreal...? That was called something like "Vin du Moyen-Age."

The notes in this rosé are flowery, with a refreshing finish - a nice complement to this incredibly hot weather in Vienna (it was 29 today)! Rosé is often a tricky one to pull off, but in the summer, I like to think of it as a hot weather red. Although nothing can beat the rosé CB and I tried in 2008 in Mont de Marsin, a little town just outside Bordeaux, this came pretty close. Who says wine can't be a thirst quencher?

Wegenstein Blaufränkisch Klassik 2009

This was another BOGO at Merkur - 2 for €4.95, like the Bordeaux from a few posts ago, but this one's Austrian. Blaufränkisch is a deeper red than a Zweigelt, and typically produced in the Burgenland region of Austria, next to Hungary. I've tried Wegenstein's Zweigelt as well, and was not impressed, but the Blaufränkisch is quite good. It is, after all, called Klassik. 


The color is a deep ruby red, and there and hints of blackberry and pomegranate, though it does have high alcohol content, which gives it a bit of a bite. To be paired with food, most definitely. Honestly, this wine is not very good on its own. I bought a selection of cheeses as well at Merkur, and among them, white Irish cheddar, roulade aux noix (goat's cheese with walnuts) and a smoked Gouda tasted quite lovely on Kaisersemmeln and a glass of Blaufränkisch.


One note: the Blaufränkisch is to Zweigelt as Cabernet Sauvignon is to Merlot - have I mentioned this before? Anyway, one is the "parent" grape and the other is the "baby" which gives one a stronger, hardier flavor in the wine...and a better aging process. Oak barrels recommended.

Did You Know?

A new study from Penn State University has deciphered that, if you're not a wine expert, it's not really worth it to buy expensive wines - you won't be able to tell the difference. Some of this has to do with experience, but, the study argues, some might have to do with biology. Certain people have more refined palates, because of the physiology of their mouths and taste buds (the study calls them "Super Tasters") and these people often end up making a living from this - as a wine taster, food critic, what have you.

But, for the average Joe or Jane, the difference between a $15 bottle of wine and a $100 bottle of wine is indistinguishable, as long the wine is not corked, extremely low-quality (think cooking wine) or otherwise unpalatable.

Perhaps this is not news to you - after all, there's not accounting for taste - but maybe it is. In my case, I certainly hope experience plays a role, and I am not doomed to be a wine philistine for lack of being born with superhuman taste buds.

You can read an article on it from MSN here or listen to the NPR broadcast.

Chateau Ricaud Bordeaux 2008

Oh, yes. I felt the need to indulge in one of my comfort foods - comfort wines? A good ol' Bordeaux. 


I don't know why Bordeaux is my favorite, my standby. Perhaps because it was one of the first wines I tried that I liked, or I get nostalgic about living in France and the taste, smell, feel of a Bordeaux wine sends me back to a summer evening in Paris. In any case, whenever I'm in a grumpy mood or feeling a little down, I look for a bottle of nice Bordeaux red (but not in an alcoholic way, really!) Sort of how animal crackers and Kool Aid send you right back to Kindergarten. There's something charmingly simplistic and quintessential about it to me.


Some people dislike the Bordeaux wines because, frankly, they all taste the same. There's not much variety, if you control for quality. Well, being a creature of habit (I hate to admit it), I think of Bordeaux as my old reliable. Also, it's hard to find a bad one. But it's easy to find a cheap one! Especially if you are living in Europe (like me).


This particular wine, Chateau Ricaud 2008, I snapped up at Merkur during a BOGO - normally priced at €4   apiece, I got two for €4. Lucky me!

Glühwein!

It's Glühwein time here in Austria - has been for about a month, actually, but I'm just getting around to posting a comment now...been enjoying it too much, perhaps?!?


For those unfamiliar, Glühwein is the German-speaking term for mulled wine. It is typically red, but also comes in a white variety (similar to Sturm, though the law's the opposite, with white being the norm and red the outlier). The Christmas tradition of German mulled wine uses spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, orange peel, sometimes vanilla pods, cloves and sugar added to boiled wine. 


In Vienna, you can visit a charming Christkindlmarkt (Christmas market) - there are dozens around the city - and sample Glühwein or Punsch (rum, sugar and orange or other fruit flavors) at one of the stands (€5-7 for a 1/4 l mug, which you can keep after draining, or give back for a €2 refund). Or, you can buy your own pre-mixed tea bags of spices and add them to the wine of your choice at home for a cheaper version (€2 for a 2-liter bottle of junk wine + €2 for a box of spice bags = party-sized tank of Glühwein). The choice is yours - and your liver's! 

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Stellenrust Pinotage

This South African pinotage has similar taste and tannins to the California wine I bought a couple of months ago from Wine & Co. I'm starting to think whoever is in charge of stocking at W&C is letting his or her taste buds get in the way of a diversity of stocking choices. For everything under €10 that is.


These wines are both too sweet for my taste. As I've mentioned, I like my reds meaty (this from a vegetarian!) and had I known that pinotage was a mix of pinot noir and another, lesser grape, (see here for Wikipedia page) I probably would have skipped it - yes, even though it was on sale!


As things stand, I may have to skip W&C for a while. Their reds are seemingly disappointing, and why splurge on a bad bottle of €9 stuff from South Africa when I can get a perfectly good bottle of Bordeaux at Billa for under €3? I did, nonetheless drink the whole bottle (it's bad luck to waste wine!) so it couldn't have been that terrible.

Did You Know?

Did you know that most wine does not improve with age? Only bottles marked "vintage" are suitable for aging and will gather more flavor as they get older. In addition, there is a classification of of types within the vintages, which is why a 1994 Bordeaux may be worth more than a 1986  Chianti. Additionally, the growing conditions of the season impact the final product, with warmer, sunnier years making for better grape harvests, ergo better wines.

Of course, new wines like a Beaujolais should be drunk immediately, not saved. You probably won't find any vintage wines on this blog in the near future anyway, unless one of us wins the lottery!

Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

I bought this wine for Halloween (think: devil) but didn't have the chance to drink it until now.

It was definitely worth the wait, and the extra cash spent (a whole 8 euros, I know - broke the bank on this one)! Delicioso. Very much like a Tempranillo, not too sweet, not too dry. A little spicy, but not devilishly spicy (wink, wink). It was bought on the same trip to Spar that featured the delicious Hiedler Veltliner.  All in all, a great round of purchases, I think.

Their website has a lackluster commercial in league with Manchester United (...in league with - get it? OK, so it's not all that clever) that probably fared a lot better with South American audiences than with me. Perhaps you need to be a real fútbol fan and not just a poseur (i.e. me). 

Jamek 2011 Grüner Veltliner

Oh, autumn! The most wonderful thing about autumn is the harvest - as it is getting closer to Thanksgiving, my American upbringing is kicking in and I am getting excited about stuffing and pumpkin pie! Here in Austria, the focus is not exactly on turkey and stuffing yourself until you explode, but quite a few seasonal delicacies have sprung up at the Naschmarkt, including mushrooms (it's mushroom season and a favorite Austrian pasttime is picking your own...) and Kürbis (translated as both "squash" and "pumpkin"). I've been experimenting with both ingredients, and since I decided to make a chantrelle (Eierschawmmerl) goulash for dinner, I thought I would flavor it with another favored Austrian autumn classic, a new wine! 


This delicious white wine, produced in the Wachau, is a soft, fruity, light wine - just what you'd expect from a new wine! Opening the bottle reminded me of spring, and though I don't often compare wines to perfumes, it really reminded me of Yoko Ono's signature scent, Ma Griffe (certainly it tastes better than Ma Griffe would, however). Sort of a lemony-sage-jasmine flavor (scent?). I tasted a distinct grapefruit flavor in the palate. The finish is a bit earthier than expected, and the color is a beautiful pale yellow.


I bought this wine for roughly €8 at Wein & Co. It's a bit more than what I normally pay at Spar or Billa, but definitely worth the splurge. 

Duca del Frassino Soave Classico

I picked this bottle up at Merkur, near my apartment. It was on sale for around 6 euros, and the bottle said it won a bronze medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards in 2010. So I was surprised to find that in the US, this wine is marketed (and sold) in a box.

Perhaps I am the consummate snob. Perhaps I am woefully out of date. But the boxed wine I remember is Franzia in a four liter cardboard monster, being sipped out of plastic cups (or gulped straight from the carton) by very drunk and insouciant college students gathered in a dorm room, around a campfire or "hidden" in a thermos at a less-than-stellar poetry slam. Not the stuff of dinner parties or persnickety sommeliers.

The wine itself is nice, with a very crisp fruit taste, like Bosco pears or Macintosh apples. Or maybe a bit of both. I've had better Italian whites, I feel...but maybe I'm being overly picky. I prefer Italian reds anyway, but giving this a chance, I can say it is a definite improvement over Franzia, despite how it's marketed outside Europe.

Hiedler Kamptal Grüner Veltliner 2010

This wine was the Spar October "Wein des Monats" and is from Langlois, which is incidentally a place I visited around this time last year - it's a small town in the Weinviertel, near the Czech border. Touted as the "region's finest" on the chalkboard outside the wine section, I can even feel reassured that I was buying local when I bought this wine.

The Hiedler tasted excellent with butternut squash au gratin and bleu cheese. The wine is just sweet enough to be perfect with bleu cheese and just dry enough to be able to call itself a Grüner Veltliner. I might just be making this up, but i'm pretty sure I tasted notes of lemongrass and mint. Maybe even strawberry?! It was a very herbal-y wine, at least.

I would definitely buy this wine again. It can even be found online - props to being in a viniferous country!

Botte Buona Sangiovese Rubicone

This is one of those cheap-o wines (€1.99 at Billa) that is so cheap, you've just made up your mind before drinking it that it will be disgusting. You almost have your heart set on bad wine. You think, "A wine without a date? That just says 'Red wind from E.U.' on the bottle? I'll just lower my expectations to the least common denominator."

But, Rubicone (named presumably for the river in Italy - one of the reason I got it. I am such a Classics nerd) was, actually, not only palatable, but quite so! I found it fruity, dark and dry, with a flowery bouquet and plum-type taste.

I will most likely be buying this again. Definitely a Sangiovese fan.

Did You Know?

Did you know that the color of your wine bottle can tell you what's inside without reading the label? Dark green is traditionally reserved for reds, light green for whites, clear for sweet wines, and amber for ports, and some reds. Blue glass is sometimes used for Rhine wines.

Vinous Twitterings

Check us out on Twitter with search #winesnobbery! Remember, in vino veritas! Cheers.

How to drink wine, from Brideshead Revisited, with Sebastian (Anthony Andrews) and Charles (Jeremy Irons). Enjoy!

Cantina Due Palme Brindisi 2009

The Brindisi region of Italy is known for producing wines from the Malvasia (Malmsey) grape, a sweet grape also used in the production of Madeira port.

This is the third of the "bargain bin" wines bought from Wein & Co. (which means I'll have to go back soon! Yes, apparently I have changed my opinion of the place). It is slightly sweeter than what I had expected from an Italian wine, being partial to Chianti. However, once decanted, the taste grows on you. Not as sweet as the Zinfandel I bought on the same trip (I unfortuanltely am going to have to put that one in the "yucky" pile), but still, not a wine to have with dinner. I made the unfortunate mistake of opening mine to sample with the roasted garlic and Brie I made...oops. That should teach me to assume an Italian wine is going to be dry.

Perhaps I'm a hopeless snob, but I did prefer the Brisini to the Zinfandel, although the tastes, textures, colors, etc., were similar. I am not a fan of sweet red wines, unless they are meant to be drunk with dessert. Perhaps this is a good time to bone up on my Italian so I can actually read the wine label and save myself from certain...errors in the future.

All was not lost, however, as this wine is better once decanted (i.e. left to sit out in my kitchen over night...) and tasted much better with a piece of Milka chocolate the next evening after supper!

Ironstone Vineyards Old Vine Zinfandel 2007

This, I believe, is the first California wine I've tried in Europe.

Not that I'm a snob about it or anything. Mostly, it's because (like European wines in America), buying a California wine in Austria just isn't cost effective, when there are cheaper, and equally good, local (or at least non-imported) wines to buy all over the place. But, since it's been a while, and I feel a bit homesick (maybe?) I thought I would get a California wine, seeing as it was also on sale - and looked pretty good, to be honest.

Speaking of honesty, I must admit, I'm not much of an "Old Vine Zin" fan, although I probably should be. Like most Americans, I am more familiar with White Zinfandel (sadly the staple at Christmas and other family gatherings) and I know what I feel about it. No nostalgia, no warm, fuzzy sensations - unless it's been shoved down my gullet and in struggling to get away I unwittingly imbibed too much of it. So, Zinfandels, I've had it out for you since before I could drink. Legally.

I remember my first encounter with Old Vine Zinfandel (red as opposed to rose wine) and it was not unpleasant: getting a bottle of Gnarly Head at some World Market campaign during senior year. Also a California wine, I remember being pleasantly surprised. However, it's been quite a while since then, and perhaps my taste buds have changed.

The second of my Wein & Co. bargain purchases, Ironstone Vineyards Old Vine Zinfandel is dark, flavorful, and very sweet...for a dry wine. It tastes, in fact, a little saccharine. i like strong flavors, nothing artificial, and to me, wine should not be like Coca-Cola but like wine.

The Zinfandel grape, it must be known, has a high sugar content, which is precisely why it makes such a popular wine. In fact, the sugar allows the wine to ferment to very high alcohol percentages, upwards of 16% in certain processes.  However, that aftertaste of sugary-syrupyness is not what I desire in a full-bodied wine. Leave me to my Merlot, and I'm the better for it.

My motto thus far has been: don't get anything in Europe that you can get at home. I think it'll stick, for now.

Did You Know?

Did you know that as of 2010, rosé wine sales outnumber white wine sales in France? Oh là là!


PS - Apparently in China, too. Follow this link for more!

Sturm!

Yes, they have officially started selling Sturm for the season! Sturm, for those unfamiliar with the wine-making process, is wine in its very first fermentation of the year. It's a lot like a mix between a grape cider and a grape beer, with the possibility of as much alcohol content as the wine it will become, but tastes just like juice, so you don't feel like you're drinking wine. Thus the name, "storm," which refers most undoubtedly to the hangover you get the next day...like a hurricane in your head. However, since it is only produced for a few short weeks, typically September through October each year, it is a rarity and an indulgence.

Sturm is almost always a white wine, perhaps because of the climate of Austria and the preference for white wines in this region, it is the most abundant. However, I have also seen red sturm, though I personally prefer white. Red sturm can be awfully heavy, whereas white sturm is lighter and, by contrast, more refreshing. Also, because of the yeast content, sturm has a lot of B vitamins!

Known as must in English, the drink appears in other wine-making cultures. But, I ask you, where else but in Vienna would you find sturm sold in such disparate places as: 1) a traditional Kaffeehaus, 2) a ritzy restaurant in the Museums Quartier, 3) a street festival, and 4) an Aldi (Austrian = Hofer)? If you have an idea, let me know.

Vista Tinta Roriz 2008

This tasty wine is not only a good sippin' wine (similar to a Spanish tempranillo), but also the official wine of Portugal! Similar to a Cognac, Champagne, etc., the Roriz has a special regional significance. Because it is the national wine of Portugal, only the Portuguese can produce it, in the Douro region. It is produced by Alianca.

Also the first of my bargains from Wein & Co. This little bottle set me back 5.59 euros, being the "wine of the month" (at normal price, 6.99 euros - 6.29 per bottle at 12 bottles from W&C...) the flavor is smoky, with a bit of a peppery after-taste. Perfect with savory items, like grill foods and cheeses.

The flavor is a bit heavy for this time of year. I would say this is more of an October wine, considering the spice factor. A lighter red, like a new wine (2010) or perhaps a Beaujolais would go better with high 70s temps. In any case, this is definitely an enjoyable (and cheap!) wine from a region which, unfortunately, doesn't get a lot of press.