Austria – final day

Rainer Wess

I love this vine creature peering from a doorway near Rainer's winery

Rainer Wess concentrates on making wines from Wachau, bar his Pfaffenberg Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. At present, he rents vineyards and sources fruit from selected growers, but his long term goal is to buy his own vineyards. His first step to self-sufficiency has been the purchase of a ‘new’ winery – an old building with cool cellars, that will be perfect for steady, undisturbed maturation when modernisation work has been completed.

Rainer Wess's 'new' old cellars

I enjoyed Rainer’s Riesling Terrassen 2009, redolent of limes and fresh Coxes apple flavours and a touch of lime. It was interesting to taste the huge differences in style betwen the Riesling Pfaffenberg 2009 (lime blossom, subtle lime flavours and a crunchy minerality) and the Riesling Loibenberg 2009 (soft in texture, almost soapy, with green apples and a warm finish – it will probably evolve well over the next few years).

Rainer Wess

 The Riesling Beerenausele 2008 has gentle aromas of apricots and cumquats, with crisp acidity  – sweet, but refreshing – I imagine this would be a lovely accompaniment to apricot tartlets.

Stadt Krems

Tasting at Stadt Krems

On the day of our visit, the staff at Stadt Krems were dealing with a disaster. One of their cellars had collapsed, which has meant they have lost a lot of wine. Kindly, and brilliantly, Franz Josef Gansberg (aka Goosey) and winemaker Fritz Miesbauer carried on as if their world had not suddenly changed, and treated us to a fantastic tasting with grace and calmness. I felt very grateful for this.

I enjoyed every wine tasted, but here are a few highlights. The 2009 Grüner Veltliner Weinzierlberg, Kremstal, is perfumed and peachy, with nice open aromas with a round, rich, spicy and peppery finish that lasts well in the mouth. The 2009 Grüner Veltliner Wachtberg, Kremstal Reserve, displays mineral characters with lots of ripe peach and a toasty character with a warm, round mouthfeel yet with a grape skin grip at the finish.

The Riesling 2008 Kögl, Kremstal Reserve is delicious. Really attractive aromas of stone fruits with tropical (pineapple) and ripe apple with good depth of flavour and a lovely texture, finishing crisp and dry.

I love the 2009 Riesling Grillenparz, Kremstal Reserve. This is really perfumed with notes of honeysuckle and yellow fruits – so pure and lemony – incredibly fresh. Yum!

Fritz Miesbauer, winemaker at Stadt Krems

We also tasted a couple of old Grillenparz Rieslings from the 1990 and 1979 vintages, which was a real treat. These wines were made before the current team were in place. The 1990 reminded me of walking into a car garage, where there’s that distinctive mix of metal, oil, petrol and grease – it doesn’t sound attractive, but it is, especially when mixed with a bit of lemon and apricot skin. The 1979 was like smelling hot buttered toast, I imagined cheese on toast with chopped parsely sprinkled on the top.

Schloss Gobelsburg

The gorgeous Schloss Gobelsburg

Our final visit was to the spectacular Schloss Gobelsburg estate where we were greated by the lovely Peter. Lunch was served in the beautiful gardens, while Peter talked us through the considerable history of the estate.

Peter, Schloss Gobelsburg

I was tempted to kiss the frog...

Sumptuous buffet on the lawns at Schloss Gobelsburg

Delicious food; such generosity!

And as for the dessert...

I really enjoyed Schloss Gobelsburg’s Heiligenstein Riesling 2004. It has a lovely golden colour with a touch of kerosene with bright lemons and honey / lemon linctus aromas. Very fresh on the palate, it has great balancing acidity. The Riesling Tradition 2008, was lovely too. On yeast lees for one and a half years, this has nice, evolved aromas of nectarines, oranges and grapefruit with a creamy, soft texture.

The estate also produce a sparkling wine (Gobelsburg Sekt) which is riddled by hand in the cellars. A blend of Grüner Veltliner, Riesling and Pinot Noir, it has a good mix of pear aromas along with a toasty character – nice appley flavours keep the autolysis characters fresh and clean.

Stone gargoyles were lurking in dark corners of the cool cellars

Euros pressed into the crusty cellar walls

I enjoyed the Steinsetz Grüner Veltliner which has great ripeness with aromas of apricots and yellow plums. The Grüner Veltliner Tradition 2008 has an interesting nutty (almonds) nose with an oily texture – apparently it’s very good with Stilton. The Grüner Veltliner Lamm 2009 was interesting, with peaches, nectarines and a creamy, rich texture, kept fresh and grippy by a grape skin finish.

Tasting with Peter in the magnificent hall

Immaculately clean stainless steel tank hall at Schloss Gobelsburg

I loved the two sweet wines. The Eiswein 2008 Grüner Veltliner was very pure and clean, with refreshing acidity, and the Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese 2008 has a glorious golden colour, with ripe aromas of honey-baked apricots. Thick, rich and creamy in the mouth with great acidity keeping the whole thing fresh and balanced. A wonderful end to a superb visit to Austria.

Many thanks to Isabelle, Benedicte and Lance from Clark Foyster for organising everything so well; to all the generous winemakers who made our visits so memorable; and also to the superb group of people I was priviledged to enjoy such a good time with.

We were tasting inside this room; large windows let in floods of natural light