The Ultimate Austrian Wineguide 2022/23

 AUSTRIA’S GRAPE

 AUSTRIA’S GRAPE VARIETIES Syrah being sensitive to winter frost. The wine has a ruby-red colour, slightly grassy-spicy aromas and a supple mouthfeel. It is rarely bottled as a single-varietal wine in Austria. CABERNET FRANC This grape comes from France, having been documented there for the first time in 1635. It was not permitted in Austria as a quality variety until 1986. Plantings in Austria are limited and very selective. Cabernet Franc is not very demanding on soil, yet it thrives best on fertile loam, while requiring sites with excellent sun exposure. It is highly frost-resistant. The wine has a garnet colour and is very dark. It tastes similar to Cabernet Sauvignon, but has less acidity and less abundant tannins. SYRAH Synonym: Shiraz This top-variety from the Rhône Valley first had to go to Australia to become famous before Austrians began showing some interest in it. Until 2001, wines made from this black grape were marketed with out indication of the vintage, because plantings were initially permitted for experimental purposes only. Consequently, resulting products could not be sold as vintage designated “Qualitätswein”. In the meantime, Syrah was officially accepted into the catalogue of Burgenland’s qual ity varieties. The origin of Syrah is laden with mystery and hypothesis. It was ascribed to the Persian city of Shiraz and to Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece alike. In 2001, the less prosaic truth was established. After years of DNA re search work carried out by Professor Ca r ole Meredith from the University of California at Davis and the leading French ampelographer Jean-Michel Boursiquot from L’École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique in Montpellier, the parents of Syrah could finally be determined. The prom i nent grape is a spontaneous cross between two lesser known French grapes. One of them is Mondeuse Blanche, which is related to the Savoie-based and better known Mondeuse Noire. The other one is called Dureza and is sporadically encountered in the northern Ardèche region be tween the upper courses of the Rhône and Loire Rivers. RED CUVÉE The category in which different vine varieties are combined in a harmonious blend enjoys great popularity among Austrian red wine vintners. While in previous years blends had the negative connotation of a mixed concoction of leftover wine batches, today’s blends frequently represent the high-end wines of a winery. They are often the flagship of their respective producer, who has the chance to express his personal style preference. Like the Super Tuscan models, they often bear symbolic names that have become just as familiar to wine enthusiasts as the names of single vineyards in the case of Austria’s white wines. These often-fanciful designations are borrowed from the most diverse worlds of concepts. From dogs to the universe, from mythology to song titles – anything goes; it’s actually a matter of taste and marketing savvy. Austrian red-wine blends are usually aged in new French oak barrels. Many of them include a portion of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, or more recently, Syrah, which marries especially well with indigenous grapes such as Blaufränkisch and Zweigelt. As a rule, such wines require sufficient maturation before its components homogenize. The category “Cuvée” to some extent also guards against annual fluctuations, offering more flexibility to the vintner than a single-varietal wine. © WSNA 28 falstaff WINE GUIDE 2022/23 29