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.

Budget or Bust: we attempt Aldi

Having nothing better to do on a fine spring Wednesday, VC and I trekked down to the local Aldi. I had never been in one before, so it was a chance to see for myself cardboard boxes replacing shelving and off-off brands of products. Happy Farms instead of Crystal Farms. They did however have German pumpernickle bread, and (here's the important part) a wine selection. Of course we got the most expensive, for $10... a 1.5 litre "Bell'Italia" red wine imported from Tuscany -- one of those pot-bellied bottles nestled in a half-basket.

Well, this wine must have had all the red grapes of Tuscany mashed into it. It was not bad but very intense, sort of what you get if you mix chianti and sangiovese and merlot. Eaten with a hearty ratatouille (which was supposed to be pasta but our pasta disappeared... hmm), it was not ideal but not terrible either. As they say... everything gets better with more wine.