Dan Fredman PR

Rabl Rouser

Every once in awhile I receive an email offer that would be nothing less than a crime to refuse. K&L's offer a few months ago was for 2009 Rabl Steinhaus Riesling for a price that prompted me to forward the offer to all of my friends - after I'd placed my order through their website (IMO one of the most user-friendly websites in the entire wine-o-sphere).

As it happened, I'd spent an afternoon with Rudi Rabl in the Steinhaus vineyard last year and got to taste this wine in situ. Rabl is only one of several producers working with Steinhaus fruit; Summerer, Heidler, and of course the great Willi Brundlmayer make a range of wine from this site. Rudi was personable, passionate, and knowledgeable and the wine tasted great when tasted in the vineyard with its view of Langenlois, but how would it show when consumed in the environs of my condo?  Rudi waving around a bottle of Steininger Sekt

Rudi was named "2009 Winemaker of the Year" in Sweden and this wine is a good example of why. On opening there were some peach overtones to the wine (aromatically and on the palate) which fleshed out over time to more of an apricotty thing. Had I tasted it blind I might have gone to Chenin Blanc, but the acidity was beautifully matched with the fruit, as was a bit of sulphur. 24 hours in the refrigerater later (and un-gassed), this was showing more like a top-level Vouvray. No overt sweetness under the fruit, just bushels of apricots and fresh, appley acidity. The sulphur note seemed to grow a bit more strident, so my remaining bottles will be left in the locker for awhile (5-10 years shouldn't be a problem) to allow everything to settle down and integrate fully.  Steinhaus is off in the distance on the far hill....

I'm happy I opened this bottle early for "research purposes". Infanticide, yes, but this wine has lots of upside potential if you're patient. Although complex even at this early stage of development, it's not a zaftig Wachau blockbuster winemaking tour de force that will score big points with the critics, thereby causing it to sell out immediately and disappear into the collections of dentists in Beverly Hills and plastic surgeons in Scarsdale.  It is the sort of wine that Kamptal does best - a masterfully made wine of its terroir that works with food and evolves.improves over time. That a second mortgage isn't required to buy a case (even at its original SRP, much less the sale price) is a beautiful thing. 

Vineyard Tasting with Jurtschitsch, Grillmaier, Rabl, and Höllerer

After tasting through the lineups of Kamptal Riesling and Grüner Veltliners, we broke up into groups to spend the evening with several local winemakers. Our group jumped into vans and headed up to the Heiligenstein Vineyard overlooking Langenlois where we were officially introduced to our hosts. Alwin Jurtschitsch, Josef Grillmaier, Rudi Rabl, and Alois Höllerer (Steininger was planning to attend but a family event got in the way - we drank his sekt anyway).

The view from the vineyard was amazing, but it wasn't as if the wines needed the atmosphere to show well.

Each winemaker poured one of their wines, talking about their vineyards (Heiligenstein and Spiegel, primarlily) and giving us a general feel for the history and geology of the area. I thought that the 2010 Jurtschitsch Riesling Zöbinger Heiligenstein Kamptal DAC Reserve Erste Lage particularly stood out, as did Alois Höllerer's 2010 Grüner Veltliner Alte Reben that was grown a couple of towns over.
The cover crop in the Heilegenstein Vineyard was about as colorful as I can recall seeing in any vineyard: 

After tasting throught the first round of wines, we climbed back into the vans and headed off for the Käferberg Vineyard across the valley. Willi Brundlmayer is probably the best known producer from this vineyard, but Jurtschitsch, Grillmaier, Loimer, Rabl and others source fruit from this beautiful site.
We tasted another flight of wines (Grillmaier's 2010 Weissburgunder Käferberg tasted especially good, possibly because we were drinking it a few meters away from where it was grown)(but that's why you go to visit vineyards). As the sun started to set we headed back down to the Loisium for dinner.
While a beer might have been called for, we went directly to the table, whereupon they plied us with five courses of food, accompanied by five different wines with each course. While the intentions were good, it may have been just a little bit too much of a good thing, particularly as it was a Sunday night, the restaurant was a little understaffed, and we'd tasted quite a bit of wine already that day. The food was on the creative side, with more than a touch of molecular cuisine appearing at the table. The dinner's pace was slow, to the point where we opted to do away with the cheese course entirely and we took the final flight of wines to the bar where we were joined by other members of the group who were returning from their winemaker dinners.
By the end of the night, we'd added 35 more wines to the tasting talley, bringing the day's total to "way too many". The winemakers were good sports about it and guided us through their favorites in the last two flights. As it turned out,the 100+ wines we tasted that day served as a good warm up for Monday's schedule. It would have been easier if the wines hadn't been so consistently good. It wasn't a matter of quality analysis, simply one of deciding what you liked at that moment a little more than another wine. Not exactly a bad situation to be in.

The Loisium in Langenlois (or: Bacchus goes to the Bellagio?)

After the schnitzel lessons and luncheon at Schloss Mühlbach, we departed to the town of Langenlois in the Kamptal DAC.Our accommodations were at the justly-famous Hotel Loisium, a combination hotel/restaurant/spa and wine museum designed by US architect Steven Holl.

Set among vineyards on the outskirts of town, our room had a great view of the vineyards that surround Langenlois. Some of the rooms are named after local wineries (we were in one of the Schloss Gobelsburg rooms). After getting checked in and dropping off our stuff, the group headed past the pool and through the vineyard to the adjacent Loisium Museum. The entrance is tough to miss, with heiroglyphics telling the story of wine, food and the way they come together in life (or at least that's how I interpreted them).
Upon entering the museum, we descended via elevator to a room containing a huge vat of bubbling liquid (wine? water?) whereupon a show worthy of the Bellagio Hotel burbled to life.
Fountains spewed liquid in all directions, lights flashed and changed colors and there was enough misty spray to please anyone who's ever enjoyed the splashy water rides in amusement parks.
The show concluded with a glowing amber bust of Bacchus rising from the depths of the tank like something out of a Conan the Barberian novel and spitting a stream of wine at the open mouth of the ghostly, mysterious figure undulating on the wall above our heads.
It was a little bit Wagnerian, a little bit Las Vegas, and overall as entertaining as it was mystifying. We left this wine-creation pageant through a side door and entered some ancient wine aging caves that led us to a slightly (well, entirely) more normal museum experience. I enjoyed seeing the recreated kitchen with its bread rising trough, along with the cooperage display, the cobbler's room, and the general sense of what it was like to be living in Langenlois 100+ years ago.
After wandering around through the last century, we found our way up to taste through some 50+ Grüner Veltliners and Rieslings from the Kamptal DAC. We were welcomed by Fred Loimer, one of the highest-profile winemakers in the region.

In addition to Fred's 2009 Steinmassl Reserve Riesling, I was also impressed with the Jurtschitsch Dechant Alte Reben GV, Hiedler Kittmannsberg November Reserve GV, the 2009 Hirsch Gaisberg Reserve Riesling and the 2010 Schloss Gobelsburg Kammerner Gaisberg Riesling. In general, all of the wines showed beautifully, and palate fatigue hadn't yet reared its ugly head. But we'd only tasted about 80 wines thus far (including the morning's Weinviertel DAC bottles) thus far and the day was yet young...

Schnitzel cookery lesson at Schloss Mühlback, Wienviertel, Austria

I like schnitzel. No, make that "I LOVE schnitzel". On my recent trip to Austria, I quite likely would have dined on it at every meal, but I was unable to find it at any of the breakfast buffets at the hotels in which we stayed.

My favorite schnitzel of the trip was the one pictured above, from Chef Martin Weiler of Gasthaus Weiler in Laa an der Thaya, about an hour outside of Vienna. His recommendation ("secret"?) was to fry the meat in lard. Real lard, not the namby pamby vegetably oil or butter or anything, just real old-fashioned lard. Oh, and use veal, not chicken, pork, or whatever else sort of meat you might want to use to save a few bucks. It makes a difference in the end result.

Pictured here are the OEWM's Susanne Staggl and Barbara Arbeithuber explaining the technique as Chef Weiler seemingly sweats out the details. Note that it's pound the paillards with the bottom of a frying pan, then you dip the veal into the flower, then the eggs, followed by breadcrumbs and ultimately into the frying pan containing the hot lard. Fry until nicely browned and serve immediately to the delight of anyone who happens to be in the area (and hungry). Here are the ingredients:

4 Veal cutlets

60g wheat flour

2 eggs

80g breadcrumbs

200g lard

salt

 

Place three bowls near each other, filling the first with flour, the second with the two eggs (beaten), and the third with fine bread crumbs. Japanese panko might work okay too if you want to be a little different (even more appropriate if you're not using veal).

Serve immediately after cooking, accompanied by potato salad, cucumbers, and maybe some tomato if in season.

Schnitzel is one of the easiest dishes to find a wine to match. The obvious call is Grüner Veltliner or Riesling, but Zweigelt or St Laurent work perfectly too.

Fred Brander's Wine Spectator Top 100 Tasting

For the last couple of years I've had the honor of being invited to Fred Brander's party in Santa Barbara where he pours as many of the Wine Spectator's Top-100 Wines as he can locate. This usually occurs a couple of weeks after the list is released; this year's early publication of the list gave him a little more time to round up some wines. Fred had about 60 wines on hand this year, enough to give a pretty good overview of what's capturing the interest of American consumers (or WS critics) these days.

The wines were laid out in numerical order, as as the table holding the upper end of the spectrum was rather crowded with attendees (probably about 100 people this year), I began at the bottom of the list and worked my way upward through the hierarchy.

I'm not sure whether it's just that I'm pretty jaded and that it takes a lot more to picque my interest these days, but there were a lot of wines I felt were well made and worthy of notice but there's no way in hell that I'd spend my hard-earned money to obtain them for my cellar. "Bigger is better" might work in the porn industry but I don't believe that it's got any place in the wine world. There were wines with lots of fruit and no acidity and wines that had a lot of upfront fruit and dropped off the edge of the earth on the back end. So it goes in the world of picking "greatest hits" for a wine magazine that serves as the one-stop "something for everything" journal of the wine firmament.

There were wines that I'd be proud to add to the cellar. The 2009 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé was sleek and beautiful, as appropriate on this rainy day as it would be on a summer afternoon in Provence. Strawberry and dry cherry fruit predominated but the wine is beautifully balanced and has a structure that will enable it to be really interesting to drink in another decade (or tomorrow if you're short of patience).

The 2009 Chateau des Jacques Moulin-à-Vent from Louis Jadot was definitely tops in the Miss Congeniality category. Soft and approachable, this poster child for the 2009 Beaujolais vintage was immediately approachable yet has the requisite balance to allow it to evolve for awhile. You either like Beaujolais or you don't, and I happen to love the stuff, so the Spectator is preaching to the choir when they add a wine such as this to the Top 100 list.

Pichot's 2008 Vouvray Domaine Le Peu de la Moriette was subtle (as Vouvrays are wont to be) yet persistent on the finish, with a lovely texture and a flavor that hinted at off-dry yet never ventured over onto the sweet side of the occasion. This wine is not the bargain it used to be ($15 now vs. the $7 I paid for the 2002) but in the real world, the wine is a steal for a bottle that will work well with a lot of different cuisines and that will continue to evolve in the cellar for a number of years. This begs the question of whether it's worth the cost to store an inexpensive bottle for long periods of time, but I think it's worthwhile in a case such as this. And case might be the operative word, as this is the sort of wine where it's nice to have plenty of it around.

 

   

If the Moulin-à`Vent was Miss Congeniality, then the 2008 Loibner Grüner Veltliner Federspiel by Weingut Emmerich Knoll won the talent competition. Such masterful winemaking here, yet the technique didn't get in the way of the wine as it did in so many of the other bottles at this tasting. This is a seamless wine that was a pleasure to drink, offering as much intellectual stimulation and complexity as you'd care to draw out of it yet just being fun to drink if you wanted nothing more than to whet your whistle and wash the white asparagus or schnitzel down the ol' pie-hole. It was broad on the palate, with requisite Wachau minerality and hints of white pepper and a bit of smoke.

They selected the 2005 Bodegas Beronia Rioja Reserva at position #52 and it was quite enjoyable, very much on the "traditional" side of the Rioja equation. Balanced and amiable, it's the sort of wine I'd like to have in the cellar for those times I don't want to be blown away by a wine but still want something good to drink. The 2006 Bodegas LAN Rioja Crianza fits the same slot (albeit at #42), although I preferred the Beronia to the LAN, all things considered (I'd like a crianza to taste a little fresher to make up for the lack of complexity in a Reserva). But for under $20 per bottle, it's not a big deal. Non-blockbuster winemaking seems to have a place on the Wine Spectator list, and that's a good thing.

The most intriguing red wine of the day for me was the 2007 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel. Early-on at the tasting the wine was good but lacked complexity. About an hour after opening the wine had turned into a roaring homage to the Southern Rhône, with flavor and aromatic sensations pinging back and forth in an organized yet chaotic manner as if the wine were a symphony composed by Charles Ives. Brett was part of this glorious cacaphony as were Provençal herbs and even a few Asian spices. Paso Robles lies in the new world so obeisance need not be paid to Chateauneuf-du-Pape with the level of attention thought proper in the past and this wine is all the better for it. I've been around Tablas Creeks wines since the first vintages (1987, IIRC) and this is by far my favorite wine they've made. Jason Haas and Neil Collins are on their game with this wine; I hope that vintage conditions in the future enable them to continue in this vein for a long time. I would also recommend that you check out the Tablas Creek blog. It is among the best-written, most often-updated, and just generally worthwhile-to-read wine blogs on the net.

Sticking to the Southern Rhône meme, the 2009 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc was an ideal choice to reside in the Top-10 of this list. Stone fruit sensory stimuli were in abundance, with a broad, silky texture and persistance on the finish. Although leaning toward the zaftig nature of this producer's red wines (at least since the 2003 vintage), this wine kept its over-the-top proclivities in check, resulting in a transplendent example of the heights that whites from the Southern Rhône can achieve.

I probably tasted 40 of the wines on the table and enjoyed most of them. When I began looking these wines up when I returned home, it became apparent that my sweet spot in the Wine Spectator rating world is right around 90 points. Not that I'm not happy to drink wines at the top, but most of those suffered from too much intrusive winemaking. Been there, done that, and I'm happy to know that if I'm not exactly a cheap drunk, at least I'm a more discerning one after a lot of years tasting a lot of wines and figuring out what makes me happy. Kudos for Fred Brander and his crew for putting on one of the year's most anticipated (yet low-key) tastings.

 

American Wine & Food Festival 2010

The team from Dan Fredman PR had the pleasure of participating in the annual American Wine & Food Festival (AKA: Meals on Wheels) again last Saturday. The sweltering folks representing Hirsch, Markus Huber, and Torbreck doing what they can to conserve energy and rehydrate prior to the start of the evening's festivities.

The weather was scorchingly hot, thus creating a larger-than-normal desire for cool white wines on the part of the arriving attendees (but a special shout-out to Chef Octavio Beccera of Palate Food + Wine who had the foresight to bring along a pile of ice-cold Modelo). Our tables were right at the entrance to the event, so almost immediately upon walking through the site's gates the thirsties were quenchable by a choice of Torbreck Viognier/Marsanne/Roussanne, Hirsch Chardonnay, or a bevy of Grüner Veltliners and a Riesling from Weingut Markus Huber.

Event co-founder Barbara Lazaroff interviews Chef Paul Prudhomme

Our tables were right next to those of Chef Paul Prudhomme, probably the first "celebrity chef" I'd come in contact with some 20+ years ago. His food remains excellent and he's a total trouper at these things, as always happy to chat with his fans and pose for pictures. One of my favorite things about this event is that all of the participating chefs tend to be extraordinarily gracious. This is more than just being friendly with potential patrons- in this day and age where it seems as if every recent graduate from culinary institutions considers themselves celebrity chefs, this group was (for the most part) a bunch of people who'd worked their way up through the ranks and are now running restaurants (if not empires) that are successful, inspiring, and are standard bearers for the idea of success being achieved through hard work fueled by a vision. I spent a little time chatting with Charles Phan of the Slanted Door and Jose Andrés of the Think Food Group. Both were charming and passionate about what they do.
Chef from Estiatoro Milos of the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas filets a whole fish cooked in Greek sea salt. It was a very memorable dish and worked well with the 2007 Antica Terra Pinot Noir that Nate Ready was pouring a few tables away.

The other AWFF co-founder, Chef Wolfgang Puck leads some young revelers on a tour of the evening's sights

A good time was had by all, and attendees had the opportunity to enjoy a lot of different flavors of food and wine, all on the Universal Studios backlot, surrounded by food and wine and music a bunch of new Audis (I liked the R8 Spyder 5.2 FSI Quattro quite a lot) Our tables were pretty much mobbed all night. At the Hirsch Winery table, Tess Bryant and her friend Holly poured the 2007 Hirsch San Andreas Pinot and 2008 M Pinot Noir and added a lot of fans to the mailing list.

Torbreck was (as usual) a crowd pleaser; in addition to the Viognier/Marsanne/Roussane white Rhône blend, we poured the 2009 Cuvée Juveniles GSM and the 2006 Struie. As the evening cooled down (although not that much) we had more takers for the red wines. 

The wines from Markus Huber seemed to catch people off guard, but after the first sip they liked them just fine. The three levels of Grüner Veltliner showed the difference made by sourcing fruit from a single vineyard (the 2009 Obere Steigen was magnificent) but it was also interesting to compare and contrast that wine with the single vineyard 2009 Huber Engelreich Riesling. Both were excellent, with the nod going to the GV in terms of playing nicely with the grilled lobster being served across the way from us. Huber was not the only Austrian winery represented at the event. Damon Ornowski was there from Vin Divino and he was pouring wine from Domäne Wachau and Zantho and he did a great job of keeping the band happy (particularly the bassist, given that she's from Vienna).

This is usually my favorite food and wine event of the year. It brings out a great crowd on both sides of the table and the weather is invariably pretty good. Check back at the their website for details on the 2011 American Wine & Food Festival.

New SF Wine Merchant Worth Watching - périphériquewine

It would appear that Jesse Becker is finally getting his périphériquewine up and running. What's not to like about a virtual, non-brick 'n' mortar retail establishment dedicated to wines grown in vineyards surrounding the Alps? As he states on the website: "We don’t offer everything. We specialize in wines that grow on the edge of what is viticulturally possible: wines of superb balance, exacting expression, and immense complexity."

I first met Jesse on a trip to Austria to attend Vie Vinum earlier this year. I arrived a little early and my friends at Emerald wine (a thinly-if-at-all-disguised division of Winebow) invited me on their field trip to visit and taste at Weingut Heinrich and Paul Achs in Burgenland. L-R Andreas Wickhoff, Gernot Heinrich, Jesse Becker tasting at Weingut Heinrich, May 2010

Becker has worked at Tra Vigne in St Helena, Charlie Trotter's in Chicago, and under Bobby Stuckey at Frasca in Boulder Colorado. Why he made the move to retail is a mystery, but a similar path has been trod by Chris Meeske of Mission Wines in South Pasadena, CA, another MS who stopped working in restaurants.

On the périphériquewine website, the map is beautifully done and well thought out. Becker's personalized notes about each location make make the approach seem very personal. I like the idea of a retailer built on the concept of place; that a Master Sommelier such as Jesse is behind the operation should make it a tremendous resource for consumers who are looking for wine to accompany food. There's a link on the website to get on the mailing list. Becker promises to not abuse the email privilege...

Kracher, Hirtzberger, & Burlotto @ WP24

Erich Andert of Weinlaubenhof Kracher was in Southern California last week and Vin Divino sales maven (and Master Sommelier) Damon Ornowski invited me to join them for dinner at WP24, the latest jewel in the Wolfgang Puck crown.

Dinner began with an array of dim sum (including pork belly, spring rolls, etc) and was followed by an intensely spicy hot & sour corn soup. These were accompanied by two wines from Franz Hirtzberger in the Wachau, a Grauburgunder Pluris and 2003 Grüner Veltliner Rotes Tor. Both were perfect with the varied flavors, textures, and aromas of the dishes Klaus Puck was bringing to the table.

 

Damon had ordered "Angry Lobster" for the next course, and the spices and black bean sauce would have been nicely accompanied by the Hirtzberger wines, but we were drinking with (semi) wild abandon so he swung for the fences and ordered 2007 Burlotto Nebbiolo Langhe. I guess this is what sets people with the MS certificate apart from we mortal winegeeks, who probably would have ordered a bottle of Semillon or White Burgundy to accompany the lobster. It was an inspired choice, with every note of the wine enhancing all aspects of the dish (and vice-versa).  Overall, the food was exquisite, perfectly prepared and served with elan and grace by a very attentive wait staff. Combined with the 24th-floor view of the surrounding buildings, dining at WP24 is one of the city's most memorable dining experiences.

(Erich Andert waiting for his limo)

We ended the evening with a flight of four Kracher TBAs. To say that Kracher makes the greatest sweet wines in the world isn't exactly bloviation; the only other late harvest producer who is arguably in the same category would be Chateau d'Yquem. Over my many years of familiarity with the Kracher dessert wines, I've always presumed that the higher the number on the bottle, the better the wine would be (said numbers reflect the sweetness/must weight at harvest). It finally dawned on me that this isn't necessarily the case. As I tasted through these wines I found that the lower-level wines were more drinkable (and enjoyable), where the higher numbers were more to be admired and marveled at. Or maybe it's just me.

it should also be noted that Erich and his brother Michael own the Andert winery in Pamhogna. I first tasted these wines at Vie Vinum a few years ago and was very impressed. They're farmed sustainably and evolve beautifully over a long period of time in the cellar. Quantities produced are minuscule and thus aren't imported into the USA just yet, but it's a label worth seeking out if you're visiting the Neusiedlersee in the Burgenland region. 

Austria Uncorked, San Francisco May 2nd

The Circo Vino table, with Rand Yazzolino, Sariya Jarasviroj Brown, and Michael Brown

Austria Uncorked came to San Francisco on the way to NYC and by all accounts was a big success. Featuring wine from some 80 producers, the tasting gave a rather complete overview of the current wine scene in Austria (although i have to add that I didn't see any Schilcher in either of the rooms).

The event brought out the cream of the crop of importers and their representatives: Brian Greenwood and Hiram Simon of WineWise

Stephan Schindler of Winemonger poured alongside Alessia Bouttouri:
Erin Grace, Jodi Stern, and Andreas Wickhoff were there representing the Winebow producers, including stunning wines from Prager, Rudi Pichler, Heinrich, and the food-friendly Zwei and Blau from Neckenmarkt.

Justin Gallen was pouring Bill Mayer's "The Age of Riesling" porfolio:

and of course Frank Dietrich was there with the wines from Blue Danube Wine Company.
It was also nice to see Judith Beck and Rainer Wess at the show. Their wines are being imported by Merrick Dowson at Adventures In Wine.

Documenting it all for the folks back home was Sandra Auernigg from Wines of Austria at what appears to be her last event before moving onto a new position in property management?!?!

There were plenty of winemakers in attendance. It was nice spending time with Michael Reinisch at the Circo Vino wall:
Weingut Johanneshof Reinisch is located in the Thermenregion and in addition to the traditional Gumpholdkirchen blend of Rotgipfler and Zierfandler, the winery makes some exceptional Pinot Noir and St Laurent.

The room was filled with plenty of the requisite Grüner Veltliners and Rieslings you'd expect to see at an Austrian wine event, but it was cool noticing that there is plenty of interest in Pinot Noir throughout Austria, even though the variety is responsible for only a few percentage points of the nation's total sales. Most of the Pinot winemakers also work with St Laurent, Zweigelt, and Blaufränkisch, with these all being ideal when matched with food.

Here's another producer of fine Pinot, Axel Stieglmar, show talking to Willi Klinger, head of Wines of Austria:
Other exciting Pinots tasted on Monday included those from the aforementioned Judith Beck and Josef Umathum.

All in all it was a good day for the exposure of Austrian wine. The trade tasting was followed a few hours later by a consumer event that attracted 250+ people. I'm not going to say yet that enough substantial critical mass has been attained to put Austrian wines on the go-to bottles list in the minds of American consumers, but inroads are definitely being made.

Pre-Austria Uncorked, The Slanted Door, San Francisco, 3 May

Austrian Wine came to SF on Sunday and Monday for a trade tasting followed by a consumer event. About 80 wineries were represented, with many of them bringing winemakers over to pour their wines and speak about them. A group of us got together for dinner on Sunday at The Slanted Door. This Vietnamese-inspired restaurant has been one of the top supporters of Austrian wine in the US for the past decade and our dinner showed why the inspired wine list (curated by Mark Ellenbogen, soon to move on to his own project according to people who know about such things) was perfect with chef Charles Pfan's cuisine.Willi Klinger and charming colleagues Sandra Auernigg and Stephanie Artner

Starting with some Brundlmayer Sekt, the wine kept flowing through the evening as course after course came out fromthe kitchen. Highlight for me was te 2006 Moric Neckenmarkt Alte Reben Blaufränkisch that accompanied the meat section of the evening.

 

Sariya Jarasviroj Brown, Willi Klinger

Not surprisingly, other people in town for Austria Uncorked were also dining at The Slanted Door that night. Sariya Jarasviroj Brown from Circo Vino was there with her husband Michael Brown and Andreas Wickhoff of Premium Estates of Austria. Rainer Wess and Judith Beck stopped by the table as well. 

Barbara, Stephanie, Goose (of Stifft Goettwegg and Stadt Krems) and Sandra